Downed high-voltage power lines south of Alice, N.D. following a tornado outbreak the night of June 20-21, 2025. (Joe Leier/KFGO News)
WASHINGTON (North Dakota Monitor) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved more than $682,000 to assist North Dakota recover from June 2025 storms, the third round of disaster relief funding this year.
The funds awarded, $334,000 to Nodak Electric Cooperative Inc, and $348,000 to Northern Plains Electric Cooperative, will be used to replace electric poles and power lines damaged in the storm, and make other electrical repairs or replacements, according to a FEMA news release on Monday.
In a July 2025 letter sent to President Donald Trump, North Dakota’s federal delegation said the disaster destroyed homes and businesses, but also negatively impacted the state’s rural electric cooperatives. Damage from the June 2025 storms were estimated to have caused $11.7 million in damages.
“While the State of North Dakota put numerous resources and measures in place to protect its residents prior to, during, and after the derecho event, the storm system caused unavoidable damages to infrastructure and property, and tragically took the lives of 4 North Dakotans,” said U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer, John Hoeven and U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, in a statement.
In June, FEMA also awarded about $822,000 to North Dakota due to the storms last year. More than $422,000 of those funds went to the Minnkota Power Cooperative to restore electrical transmission power systems and about $400,000 to the University of Jamestown to fund repairs to the school sports complex.
The federal agency awarded an additional $650,000 to the state on July 9 in support of community resilience and recovery grants.
The state is also making requests for federal assistance in response to storms in 2026.
Gov. Kelly Armstrong requested Trump declare a presidential major disaster declaration for storms occurring last month, June 7-9, that caused an estimated $4.6 million in damage. The storms damaged parts of Bottineau, Burke, Divide, McLean, Mercer, Oliver and Williams counties. Armstrong declared a state disaster as a result of those storms on June 30.
“Just as communities were starting to clean up from the first round of storms on June 7, another round hit two days later, compounding the damage and complicating response and recovery for our citizens,” Armstrong said in a statement. “We appreciate the administration considering this request to help cover the cost of significant damage to public infrastructure from this one-two punch.”
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