Trump approves FEMA aid for some Tennessee counties as state disaster costs mount

President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration for select Tennessee counties on Friday, opening the door to federal recovery support for individuals and county governments that suffered costly damage from April storms.

The decision comes more than two months after severe storms battered Middle and West Tennessee, bringing destructive tornadoes and once-in-a-generation flooding that killed 10 people and damaged hundreds of homes.

The declaration opens federal funding to individuals in Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Dyer, Hardeman, McNairy, Montgomery, Obion and Wilson counties. Individual assistance can include temporary housing and home repair grants, low-cost loans to cover uninsured losses and other post-disaster support services. FEMA instructs individuals to file claims with their insurance providers before applying for federal assistance.

A federal cost-share to help cover emergency work, repair and replacement expenses on public property is also available to the state, eligible local governments and some nonprofit organizations. Public assistance is available in 19 counties: Cheatham, Davidson, Decatur, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Grundy, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henry, Hickman, Lauderdale, Madison, McNairy, Obion, Perry, Stewart and Tipton.

Federal assistance will cover 75% of eligible recovery costs under the public assistance program, a FEMA spokesperson confirmed Monday. The state and local governments are required to cover the remaining 25%. Historically, Tennessee has split the 25% share evenly with local governments.

Gov. Bill Lee originally requested individual assistance for 15 counties and public assistance for up to 30 counties, in addition to Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding for the state to use toward preventative measures to reduce future risk and harm from natural disasters. Hazard mitigation assistance remains under review. 

Damage to public property and the cost of recovery services is expected to exceed $26 million, according to preliminary assessments conducted by local, state and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials. That estimate does not include individual losses, which can be more difficult to calculate. Tennessee’s emergency management agency estimated around 300 homes and 14 businesses or nonprofits were severely damaged. 

In McNairy County — where an EF-3 tornado with wind speeds up to 160 miles per hour killed five people and devastated swaths of Selmer, the county seat — residents and business owners suffered an estimated $27.6 million in private property damage, according to the county’s emergency management agency. Damage to public property, roads, utilities, and government facilities in McNairy County totaled another $2.7 million, according to preliminary assessments. A joint assessment with help from federal officials found the damages eligible for FEMA’s public assistance program totaled closer to $4 million.

Gov. Lee: Multi-year string of disasters has exhausted state resources

Tennessee is the last state to receive the declaration from the Trump administration following April storms that also ripped through parts of Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi.

The president has sole authority to grant a disaster declaration and therefore allow access to FEMA’s assistance programs. After a disaster, local and state governments begin to assess the cost of the damage, sometimes with help from federal personnel. Governors then use these figures to request federal assistance from the president. FEMA uses per-capita cost thresholds to gauge whether local and state governments can handle recovery themselves and the agency makes recommendations to the president, but meeting those thresholds doesn’t guarantee presidential approval.

Report: Under proposed higher FEMA threshold, recovery would cost TN $468M more from 2008-2024

The administration has indicated that it plans to reduce the amount of federal assistance available to states through FEMA after natural disasters, requiring states to bear more of the financial responsibility for recovery. Trump initially denied Arkansas’ request for a major disaster declaration after March tornadoes, but later relented and approved individual and public assistance.

State requests for disaster declarations are on the rise, and over the last 25 years, states in the Lower Mississippi River Basin saw five approvals for every one denial, as compared to a 2-1 approval ratio from 1953 to 1999. Tennessee has received nearly $1.2 billion in federal aid following natural disasters since 1953, according to FEMA data. 

Tennessee has experienced 18 major disaster declarations in the last five years, according to Lee’s letter to the Trump administration requesting federal aid following April’s storms.

The state has managed multiple disasters that have not risen to the level of a presidential disaster declaration on its own, ranging from winter storms in January 2023 to tornadoes and wildfires in 2024 and severe flooding in February 2025 that left much of the small West Tennessee town of Rives underwater, according to Lee’s request.

Recovery continues for 23 major disaster declarations that remain open in Tennessee, including recovery from Tropical Storm Helene. The state allocated $500 million toward Helene recovery efforts.

These efforts have exhausted state resources “to such an extent that they have strained and will continue to impact budgets for current and past calendar years,” Lee’s letter states.