ST. PAUL — Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter to President Barack Obama requesting individual assistance for residents of Aitkin, Carlton, Crow Wing, Lake, Pine and St. Louis counties as well as the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa following severe storms and flooding that impacted the area in June.

Gov. Dayton made the request after a week-long damage assessment by teams from FEMA and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM). The teams surveyed more than 11-hundred homes and found, based on FEMA classifications, 17 destroyed, 154 with major damage, 419 with minor damage and 479 affected.

Dayton requested Individuals and Households Program, Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Disaster Case Management, Disaster Legal Services and Crisis Counseling. The Individual and Households Program provides money and services to people in the disaster area when losses are not covered by insurance and property has been damaged or destroyed. This request includes programs available through the Small Business Administration (SBA).

In his letter to the president, Dayton said “severe storms and flooding caused damage of historic proportions to many areas of the state. In northeastern Minnesota, the 500-year flood event caused by two-day rainfall amounts in excess of 10 inches resulted in severe flash flooding across the region. A flood warning remains in effect for Aitkin County, where the Mississippi River is still above flood stage.”