Minnesota lawmakers call for more financial aid for 2019 spring flooding following damage underestimation

(FOX 9) - The Minnesota congressional delegation is calling upon FEMA to provide more financial aid to the state to assist communities that were impacted by last year's spring flooding. This comes after the FEMA's finalized damage assessment was determined to be nearly double its original assessment.

Historic snowfall last February led to widespread flooding throughout the state last spring, impacting at least 51 counties and four tribal nations. A preliminary assessment found there was about $40 million in damages, but it later ended up being $76 million.

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN), and Representatives Jim Hagedorn (R-MN-1), Angie Craig (D-MN-2), Dean Phillips (D-MN-3), Betty McCollum (D-MN-4), Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5), Tom Emmer (R-MN-6), Collin Peterson (D-MN-7), and Pete Stauber (R-MN-8) sent a letter to call for more financial assistance and a review of the procedures that led to determining the damage estimates.

“Minnesotans are resilient and have demonstrated their ability to come together to respond to and recover from weather disasters through the partnership of the federal government,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “It is for this reason that we ask FEMA to provide additional financial assistance to the state and undertake a full review of the procedures that it relied on in developing its estimate of the damages in Minnesota so that similar situations can be prevented in the future.”