President Trump approves federal aid for Kentucky communities hit by severe weather

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — On Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced that President Donald Trump had approved federal public money for Kentucky communities hit by severe weather in April and May.

FOX 56 spoke with the mayor of London, one of the hardest hit areas from the May tornado. Mayor Randall Weddle said this will be a huge help as the city looks to move forward.

May 16 is a day families across multiple counties in Southern Kentucky will never forget. The devastating storm took the lives of 20 people—17 were from Laurel County alone.

More than 800 homes in the area were damaged, and many were flattened. Weddle said the city has been working to recover and rebuild ever since.

“We’re about $1.1 million in right now of money spent,” he said. “That’s a lot of money.”

But the declarations Trump signed will now provide much-needed financial help to dozens of counties, including communities like London.

“To see that the president signed the PA side of this, we were all ecstatic to know that there’s possible reimbursement for us there.”

Now that the cleanup process is over, Weddle said the town hopes to rebuild as soon as possible.

“We’d like to have a lot of them built back so these kids, when school starts, they’ll have some kind of normalcy.”

If the city is reimbursed for what it’s spent on storm damage, Mayor Weddle said it will be able to refocus on other projects like road and bridge improvements.

“It’s huge, you know, again, small budget, a small town. So, every dollar that we can get back out of the feds is only going to go for our infrastructure.”

While this has been a trying time for the community, Weddle said London is moving forward with hope.

“We just keep urging the community that we’ve got to stay in this together and keep Christ at the forefront of it.”

If you would like to help the families affected in London, Weddle said you can donate money to Hope for London—a new organization that’s helping provide disaster relief, housing support, and more. You can find a link to its Facebook page here.