Flooding doesn't qualify for federal help

WARREN

Linda Beil, Trumbull County’s emergency management agency director, said Monday’s flooding wasn’t serious enough to allow county residents to qualify for financial flood-assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA rules say a county doesn’t qualify for assistance unless at least 25 homes in the county are destroyed or receive major damage, and Trumbull County did not experience that, Beil said.

A large number of people are reporting basement damage and being told their homeowner’s insurance won’t pay for it, Beil said.

For those people to receive FEMA help, the county commissioners would have had to declare the county a disaster area, and the county would have to ask Ohio’s EMA to refer the matter to FEMA.

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