Following June storm, federal disaster assistance now available to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
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Disaster relief is on its way to one rural tribal nation to help with the costs of damage caused by a storm that swept through the Bemidji area in late June.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, announced Thursday that it will make assistance available to individuals and families from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe whose homes were damaged by the derecho. Leech Lake’s tribal government will also be eligible for federal funding on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work, including repairs to damaged tribal facilities.
The Leech Lake Reservation is located east of Bemidji in north-central Minnesota.
Duane Oothoudt, emergency operations director for the band, has been leading the tribe’s work in assessing the damage.
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Oothoudt says he wasn’t expecting the call from FEMA after an initial application had been turned down.
“It’s important financially. It’s been a tough year for our government to spend this much money. They kind of have to shuffle things around a little bit,” said Oothoudt. “It’s a relief we’re going to receive funding for our people.”
He estimated that as many as 60 houses sustained damage from the storm.
“It was a huge area,” said Oothoudt. “Most of our reservation is water, but this impacted 52 square miles of actual land.”
Oothoudt says the tribe has been working with a handful of contractors to clear trees since late June.
“We’re still cleaning up.”
Oothoudt declined to estimate the costs of the damage sustained to homes and tribal facilities.
“I do know that we have spent a considerable amount of money just with contractors doing the cleanup of trees in the improved areas of yards, getting trees off of houses, getting them off of people’s driveways and garages, sheds and playgrounds,” Oothoudt said.
As the process moves forward, the band will work with FEMA to set up a disaster assistance center to help people apply online for home repair grants.
Oothoudt says the reservation’s Mission District was hit hardest by straight line winds. Large red pines fell on top of the district’s local community center, damaging the roof.
“We don’t have a report on those damages yet, because we’re actually kind of really working hard just to get through our day-by-day before this even started,” Oothoudt said.
The reservation is a quilt of federal, state, tribal and individual ownership. Oothoudt says patchwork ownership makes the task more challenging.
Oothoudt says FEMA will not help with the costs associated with the clean-up of undeveloped forested land. He says the tribe will work to address a large number of downed trees on tribal land.
“It does get really complicated about who’s responsible for what, and how are we going to get this cleaned up, because eventually what this is going to become is a fire hazard,” Oothoudt said.
Oothoudt says he’s thankful for the committed work of those who have helped over the past few months.
“There has been a very small group of people that are very dedicated and that love our community, that have been working very hard all summer. We’re very committed to providing whatever help that we can.”
