Menard County Added to Federal Disaster Declaration

By Benjamin Cox on December 24, 2021 at 9:42am

Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office announced yesterday that Menard County has been added to the December 10th Federal Emergency Disaster Declaration.

Pritzker’s Office says that he federal government approved his request to add Menard County to the state’s emergency disaster declaration. The emergency disaster declaration provides financial aid under the Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Assistance program to local jurisdictions for eligible storm related losses or costs incurred in response to the December 10 storm.

According to the National Weather Service, an EF-2 tornado touched down a half mile east of Atterberry causing significant structure damage. The NWS reports high-speed winds led to downed trees, powerlines and other damages throughout central Illinois and the metro east.

According to the NWS report, the Menard County tornado was from the Cass County system that touched down. It began about a half mile east of Atterberry, where a pair of metal sheds along Pin Hook Ave were significantly damaged. It mainly passed through open fields until reaching a farm along Masters Ave about a half mile west of Fairgrounds St. Here, a machine shed was destroyed and a couple other outbuildings sustained damage. The worst damage was along Attig Bridge Ave about a half mile east of Fairgrounds St. A house sustained significant damage to its roof, several trees were snapped nearby, and sheds across the road were damaged or destroyed. From this point, it mainly traveled in farm fields, overturning an irrigation pivot before lifting just shy of the Sangamon River.

Menard County joins Cass, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Montgomery, Morgan, and Pike in the area among others in the federal disaster declaration.

Under the Public Assistance program, FEMA awards grants to assist state and local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations with the response to and recovery from disasters. Under the guidelines of the PA program, local jurisdictions can be reimbursed for up to 75 percent of eligible costs.