If you are a home owner or a renter in Whitley or Knox counties and you experienced loss and damage from the May 21-27 severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, landslides and/or mudslides, then take note. You have less than one week to apply for federal disaster assistance, if you haven’t done so already.
The deadline to apply is Sept. 23.
Whitley and Knox counties were included along with 13 other counties in a federal disaster declaration, which was approved by President Joe Biden on July 23.
The May 26-27 storms in Whitley County were likely straight-line winds that got up to about 90 mph and followed a similar path as the April 2 storm primarily going through north eastern Whitley County, said Whitley County Emergency Management Director Jerry Rains.
“It was more extensive than the April wind storm. It hit a lot of the same area, but it went further from Bee Creek all the way over to Highway 26 and Woodbine. From Eatontown Road over to Woodbine was one of the hardest areas we had hit,” Rains said. “We had a total of 27 homes that were damaged. Some of those were destroyed. Some were major. Some were minor. It was all across the board.”
In addition to the Whitley County damage, the National Weather Service in Jackson confirmed a brief EF-1 tornado on May 26 that spun-up near the Legacy Chevrolet dealership near the Corbin bypass and US25E in Knox County and travelled less than one mile before dissipating between Lynn Camp High School and Lynn Camp Elementary School.
Survivors can go online to disasterassistance.gov, call (800) 621-3362 or use the FEMA mobile app to apply. If you use a relay service, such as video relay, captioned telephone or other service, give FEMA your number for that service.
Other counties included in this federal disaster declaration, which are also face a Sept. 23 application deadline, are Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Christian, Clay, Greenup, Hopkins, Logan, Muhlenberg, Simpson, Todd, Trigg and Warren.
