President Donald Trump last week approved disaster funding for Washington state, which will extend to Lewis County and the nearby Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, among more than 20 other counties and 10 tribal nations.
In the area, those also include Thurston, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties as well as the Quinault Indian Nation, Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe and the Nisqually Indian Tribe.
Director of Lewis County Emergency Management Erika Katt appeared at the Lewis County Board of Commissioners business meeting on Tuesday to confirm that federal and state officials were in the county working with county staff to assess local damages.
According to Katt, Lewis County residents — and residents of the nearby Chehalis Reservation — now qualify for federal disaster individual assistance for the first time since the wake of the 2007 Chehalis River Basin flood.
The county and other nearby governments, including tribal nations, will benefit from cost sharing assistance with the federal and state governments to clean up or repair damages related to the December flooding and wind storms. Financial assistance is available to cover the cost of damages occurring between Dec. 5 and Dec. 19, 2025.
Much like applying for loans through the Small Business Administration (SBA) — which have already been available to Lewis County residents — locals can now apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance to help pay for temporary housing, home repairs, uninsured property losses and more.
According to FEMA and Lewis County Emergency Management, residents applying for FEMA relief should first file a claim with their insurance provider before visiting DisasterAssistance.gov to apply for FEMA relief funds.
Residents can apply over the phone by calling 1-800-621-3362 or going on the FEMA app, which is available for download by visiting https://tinyurl.com/5bwh5tf5. Residents can also contact Lewis County Emergency Management at 360-740-1151 for help.
According to a recent news release from FEMA, residents who have already applied for individual assistance should expect to be contacted by federal home inspectors in the coming days to assess home damages related to the December storms.
According to Katt, the county is not yet sure of how much money the state and federal government will contribute to local cleanup and repair costs incurred by local governments. That's in part because of an ongoing partial federal government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security, and FEMA by extension.
“A lot of those questions aren't being answered because FEMA is on shutdown right now,” Katt said.
Lewis County Emergency Management is expected to open a new disaster relief outreach center somewhere on the east side of the county not long after the SBA packed up their final outreach center in Packwood at the beginning of the month. The exact location and opening date of the FEMA outreach center is not yet available.
The official FEMA declaration also affects assistance already available from SBA including extending deadlines for residents to apply for one of three disaster assistance loans to help physical and economic damages to homes and businesses. The deadline to apply for loans related to physical damage is now July 10 while the deadline to apply for loans to cover economic injury extends into next year, Jan. 7, 2027.
For more information and previous reporting by The Chronicle on federal disaster loans available through the SBA, visit https://tinyurl.com/4teswphz.
