Governor Kristi Noem says the state will spend the next thirty days assessing the damages from last week’s blizzard and flooding.
She says county emergency managers will process the damage and give that to the state to fill out an emergency declaration.
On Saturday, Noem says the state still has a lot of water moving to the southeast.
“This storm was very unique,” Noem says. “We had many areas that were buried in snow and blizzards and a lot of folks that had to be rescued from dangerous situations in the cold and snow. You only had to go 100 miles south and you had significant floodings. The whole southeastern corner of this state, they are underwater and they’re going to be underwater for a pretty long time, because we do have snowfall to the north of us that, when that melts out, that’s going to continue to come there direction. So, we’re not out of the woods yet.”
She says she wants to see if the state qualifies for federal assistance.
Over the weekend, Noem spent time meeting with first responders across the state about coordination during the storm.