Saturday, July 4, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- President Clinton has declared nine more Ohio counties disaster areas because of damage caused by last week's storms.
The declaration makes the counties eligible for federal disaster relief aid to supplement state and local efforts.
Mr. Clinton's order increases the number of counties declared disaster areas to 20. Coshocton, Franklin, Monroe, Morgan, Perry, Pickaway, Richland, Sandusky and Tuscarawas counties were added to the list Friday.
Athens, Belmont, Guernsey, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Meigs, Muskingum, Noble, Ottawa and Washington counties were declared disaster areas earlier this week.
All but one of the counties are in eastern or southeastern Ohio, which was hit by weekend storms. Ottawa County is in northwest Ohio and was hit by a tornado and storms June 24.
Gov. George Voinovich has declared a state of emergency in Holmes County, raising the number of counties under the state declaration to 26. Also included in the state disaster declaration but not on the federal list are Delaware, Harrison, Licking, Marion and Morrow counties.
Flooding has caused an estimated $130 million of damage in those 26 counties, spokeswoman Portia Armstrong of the state's emergency operations center said Friday.
