Governor Mike DeWine has requested a Presidential Disaster Declaration for eight counties impacted by severe weather in early April.

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The weather events took place April 1-4 and caused significant damage in Belmont, Monroe, Jefferson, Guernsey, Noble, Washington, Morgan, and Miegs counties, according to the governor’s spokesperson.

The counties suffered damage from storms, flooding, and tornados.

The Belmont County Emergency Management Agency posted flooding photos on social media.

They said there was a river level increase from the heavy rains in April.

DeWine said in a letter to the White House, that local officials and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (EMA) had calculated the damage of $33.8 million, well above the $21.7 million federal threshold for public disaster declaration.

FEMA’s damage estimate was $17.4 million.

“Frankly, we think FEMA’s estimate is incorrect,” said Governor DeWine in a statement. “The federal government’s reliance on Google Earth and its failure to give local officials the opportunity to provide additional information to support its estimate is concerning. These eight Appalachian counties cannot afford to fix the tremendous amount of infrastructure damage on their own, and I believe it’s the President’s duty to step in and help.”

To read the letter, click here.