More than $5 million in federal funding is going to help build 26 new homes in Mayfield for survivors of the 2021 tornado outbreak.
The money comes from Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief funding Kentucky received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this year to address disaster recovery in areas impacted by 2021 flooding and 2021 tornadoes.
Gov. Andy Beshear traveled to Graves County community on Friday to award the funds to city officials. Beshear said this federal funding will help the far western Kentucky city continue on its path to recovery after the storm damaged and destroyed thousands of structures.
“We are coming up on the two year anniversary [of the tornado outbreak] and, while it took a little bit of time to get started, the amount of construction going on all over town is something truly special,” he said.
Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan credited U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and U.S. Republican Rep. James Comer for getting the disaster recovery funding for western Kentucky included in the federal budget. She said helping the city recover from the historic disaster has superseded bipartisan divides in state and federal government.
“There's been no red and blue. There's been no right and left, there's been no [one saying], ‘the federal government did this for you, the state government did this for you,’” O’Nan said. “This is a team effort with the one goal being what is in everybody's heart and goals is to rebuild this town.”
While in Mayfield, Beshear said the state’s Department of Local Government is also reviewing two projects that would bring an additional $6 million to the Graves County community to address stormwater issues following historic flash flooding earlier this year.
The governor also handed out keys to five new Mayfield homes on Friday for tornado survivors, and helped break ground on another two houses in Dawson Springs. In total, Beshear said the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief fund has so far contributed toward the building of 147 new homes.
