By Angela Hatton
Frankfort, KY – Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is moving forward with plans to seek a federal disaster declaration, in connection with storms that ravaged Central and Eastern Kentucky over the weekend and claimed three lives. Beshear says at least 18 counties have declared states of emergency, but that could change.
"I'm not sure what the initial number of counties will be because I don't think we have the assessments from all of the counties yet. So, we're going to file this initial one with the number of counties that we have the assessment in for and then we'll amend it and expand it as we go along and as we get the final assessments from the other counties."
A presidential disaster declaration would allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to reimburse the state and counties for up to 75-percent of clean-up and rebuilding costs. Governor Beshear toured storm-damaged areas on Tuesday.