PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Michigan — Preliminary estimates show that the tornado that went through Kent County last week Thursday caused more than $4 million in damage and the county's Emergency Management Coordinator is asking for help from local government and Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
On Tuesday, emergency management officials asked the Kent County Board of Commissioners to approve a local emergency declaration which will help get additional funding to help with clean up.
Kent County's Emergency Management Coordinator Matt Groesser said the declaration would engage the Emergency Management Act which will give certain powers to counties to respond and recover from the storms.
Grosser said the declaration will allow county leaders to temporarily change people's job description to help the county with what they need at the moment.
"It allows any of the municipalities within Kent County to become potentially eligible for any state or federal assistance money should it become available," he said.
"There's still a lot of debris management that needs to occur and that may take some money, some reimbursement to make sure that, you know, the local government budgets aren't impacted, you know, too negatively with this unpredictable event that transpired," Grosser said.
An estimated 190 buildings had some type of damage throughout the county after Thursday's storms, and four buildings were completely destroyed. Nearly 40 buildings had some major damage.
"Each of those buildings represents either a business or a family that's trying to recover and so as we've been going through the neighborhoods, we've heard all different types of stories from people, you know, thankfully, most of the individuals involved were insured," he said.
Groesser said the first priority when it comes to storm recovery is getting roads cleared and power back on. Now, the focus is transitioning to the mess left behind.
"There is a tremendous amount of tree debris that exists especially in Alpine and Plainfield Townships as a a result of the tornado," Groesser said. "So that costs a lot of money to try to take care of."
Governor Whitmer is also expected to expand the State of Emergency declaration for Kent County at the state level which will also help with recovery efforts after the storms.