Aroma Park tornado damage didn't meet threshold for FEMA funding, mayor says
It's already been a record-breaking season when it comes to tornadoes, with 161 confirmed this year so far. Communities are now skeptical about whether federal assistance will come as they continue to recover.
Unfortunately, that assistance will not be going to some of those communities.
Back on March 10, deadly tornadoes ripped through Kankakee County, Illinois, and Newton County, Indiana.
During his visit to survey the damage in Aroma Park, Gov. JB Pritzker expressed confidence that FEMA funds would be forthcoming. However, three and a half months later, it was learned that the funds would not be going to those impacted areas.
What took some years to build was gone in a matter of seconds.
Two days after an EF-3 tornado hit Aroma Park, resident Bill Davison knew politics might determine federal aid.
"We are a republican community for the most part, and this is where the rubber meets the road, you know," he said.
CBS News Chicago has learned FEMA dollars will not be going there, despite early optimism from Pritzker when he said he didn't think politics would play a role. But now, according to Pritzker, it's hard to say.
"It's hard to tell," Pritzker said. "It's hard to say that this admin doesn't have politics playing a part in virtually all its decision-making, even when there are lives are at risk."
But it wasn't White House favoritism or even a rejection by FEMA that led to the decision. Illinois never made the request, which wasn't mentioned by Pritzker while speaking on the issue.
In a statement today, FEMA says, "FEMA did not receive a request for a major disaster declaration from the states of Illinois or Indiana for the March 10, 2026, event."
Aroma Park Mayor Brian Stump says city, county, and state leaders, including the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, or IEMA, led by Pritzker, determined the damage totals in Aroma Park and those around Kankakee wouldn't meet thresholds needed to qualify for FEMA funds.
"IEMA was here. They did the surveys of the area, they actually went out several days in a row and did assessment damage. They didn't feel we would meet the threshold," Stump said.
Pritzker is pointing out that thresholds are too high and the Trump administration, he says, is trying to bump them higher.
"They've raised the thresholds for getting support, they've made it harder for communities to get support, and it's quite disappointing," Prizker said.
FEMA did deny Illinois requests for federal aid twice last summer, including storms in Cook, Kane, McHenry, and Will counties last summer.
Meanwhile, there are low to no-interest one-year loans being made to storm victims from the Small Business Administration, which the state helped coordinate.
