More than three weeks after the deadly North Texas storms, many tornado victims are hoping for help from the federal government.
Help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will only come if the president signs a disaster declaration.
"The reason FEMA hasn't come in is because we haven't met the requirement," said Rowlett Mayor Todd Gottel.
The city of Rowlett and the state of Texas have both taken action for the disaster declaration – one of the requirements for a federal disaster declaration. The city of Rowlett made the declaration on Dec. 26, and Gov. Gregg Abbott made the state declaration on Dec. 27.
Gottel said the city still doesn't have confirmation that the federal government will declare Rowlett and other impacted communities a major disaster.
There are three types of assistance provided by the federal government in disasters: individual assistance, public assistance and Small Business Administration.
Individual assistance is used to help individual property owners who are uninsured or under insured. The threshold for individual assistance is 800 properties that are uninsured or under insured and fall into the category of major damage or totally destroyed.
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"We need to understand if you're insured or uninsured," said Gottel. "That's what we need in order compile the data for FEMA."
