SW Missouri families now able to receive federal individual assistance for May storms

BARRY COUNTY, Mo. — Several communities around southwest Missouri are still dealing with the effects of severe weather that took place last May.

To try and provide financial assistance for families, Governor Mike Parson announced that the federal government approved a major disaster declaration for 10 counties including Barry, Butler, Real Madrid, Howell, Carter, Ripley, Shannon, Scott, Stoddard, and Texas counties.

It’s been two months since straight-line winds took out 13 trees on Gary Wallace’s property, and despite a lot of cleaning, there’s still a ton of work to be done.

“We lost these trees here and two more over there and one of them was my bee tree,” said Gary Wallace.

Gary Wallace and his family have lived on their property for more than 80 years and this was the first time he’s ever experienced something like this.

“No sirens whatsoever, they said it was straight-line winds but it’s a mess. I know I would rather have my shade tree I know that,” said Wallace.

But thanks to the state applying for a major disaster declaration, people like Wallace can apply for federal individual assistance to help with housing repairs and other qualifying expenses.

“So now that we have the declaration, they will have 60 days to apply there several ways that they can do that FEMA doesn’t actually make that process fairly easy, said David Compton. “You can go online to disaster assistance.gov and apply there you can dial the eight 800 number which will be published at 800-621 FEMA you can dial that and apply or you can visit the disaster recovery site in Cassville and we are in progress, We’re in the process of getting a date and a time set up for that now.”

David Compton, the Barry County Emergency Management Director, says this will be a huge help to not only Barry County residents but to people across southwest Missouri.

“For individuals, It’s been tough,” Compton said. “We’ve got dozens and dozens of families that were without power without water. Some of many of them have trees and other damage to their homes that they just can’t repair. Those people spent almost 60 days now before they’re actually able to get some help and so it’s been really rough.”

He says the faster you can apply with FEMA, the faster you may be able to receive federal assistance. For more information on how to apply for assistance, you can click here .

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