Mahoning County EMA completes first storm-damage relief

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Dennis O’Hara, Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency director, said area officials have finished the first step to obtaining storm-damage relief.

O’Hara said Friday he’d submitted data gathered by damage assessment teams that surveyed more than 400 homes and businesses over the last three days to the Ohio EMA. Now, county officials will wait for the state agency to review that data.

The county must show at least 25 homes sustained “major” damage or are considered “destroyed,” 40 percent of which must be uninsured, to qualify affected property owners for low-interest loans for cleanup.

“Definitely one of the hardest-hit areas, if not the hardest hit was Indian Run” in Canfield, he said, where firefighters rescued those trapped in their basement-level apartments by high water.

“I remain hopeful to at least hear something ... from Ohio EMA by next week,” O’Hara said, adding the agency is also simultaneously responding to the Dayton area, which received massive tornado damage Monday.