Households in seven Ohio counties can now apply to FEMA for help with flood damage, after a federal major disaster declaration dated October 2. The declaration, numbered DR-4945-OH, covers an incident period of August 10 through August 22 and names Clermont, Franklin, Hamilton, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum and Perry counties. It activates the Individuals and Households Program, the arm of FEMA that pays disaster grants directly to residents rather than to governments.
What the DR-4945-OH record says, county by county
FEMA’s open-data feed lists one line for each designated area, and the seven lines for disaster 4945 agree on every field that matters. Each carries a declaration date of October 2, 2026, an incident begin date of August 10 and an end date of August 22. Each is flagged as having the Individuals and Households Program declared. The same lines show no public-assistance or hazard-mitigation program declared, which means the declaration, as recorded on the morning of October 4, is a households declaration and not a package for local governments.
The declaration title in the feed is wider than the word flooding suggests: severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, flooding and landslides. FEMA classifies the incident type as flood. Residents of the seven counties whose damage came from wind or a tornado during those same August dates fall under the same declaration title, since the title is what defines the disaster.
Seven counties approved from a 23-county request
The declaration is narrower than what Ohio asked for. In early September, Gov. Mike DeWine asked the president for a major disaster declaration covering 23 counties, telling Washington the storms were a disaster of such severity and magnitude that it exceeds the capabilities of the State of Ohio, local governments, and disaster relief organizations to provide comprehensive support. Sixteen of those counties, among them Athens, Washington, Butler and Adams, do not appear in the DR-4945-OH record as read on October 4. Whether any are added later is a decision FEMA has not announced in the record, so residents outside the seven counties have no federal households program to apply to under this number today.
John Wieber, interim director of Licking County Emergency Management, had explained the stakes before the decision came. If the federal declaration were approved, he said, that would open the programs through which people can apply for disaster relief money. Licking County is now one of the seven.
What the Individuals and Households Program pays for
FEMA’s description of the Individuals and Households Program splits the help into housing and other needs. Housing covers temporary housing while a home cannot be lived in, such as rental assistance or reimbursement for hotel costs, plus funding to repair an owner-occupied primary residence, including access routes. Other needs covers personal property and vehicles, moving and storage, and medical, dental, child care and funeral costs…