Gov. Armstrong says “There’s a long road ahead” as he tours storm damage in Cass County

CASS CO., N.D. (KVRR) — Governor Kelly Armstrong met with leaders in three communities hit by severe thunderstorms on Friday: Enderlin, Page and Hunter.

KVRR’s Juliana Pelaez and photographer Eric Bolin were with the governor as he surveyed the damage and tells us what he had to say.

“My first takeaway is how amazing people in North Dakota are. And how much, I mean we are a long way to go to get out of this. And there’s a long road ahead,” said Armstrong.

Nearly a week after multiple tornados, strong winds, and hail damaged several communities, crews are continuously working to restore their homes. On Wednesday, local leaders met with Gov. Armstrong and state leaders to discuss clean up efforts.

“We need to understand the information. We need to understand what we need to deploy, how we do it and where we can help. This is a unique natural disaster, but it’s not the first natural disaster that we’ve been through in North Dakota. I mean we deal with tornados, floods, blizzards, droughts all of. We have capacity to do these things we’ve stood these up before.”

One of the biggest concerns that rose in conversations was on federal funding and whether insurance companies would be able to help residents get back on their feet.

“Yes, we’re a small community, but we have a lot of elderly people that are living out of fixed income or on social security and their house might be insured but as we all know here it doesn’t cover everything,” said Mayor Jim Heidorn of Page.

Armstrong stated he is working to identify the funding needs of these communities. On Saturday, Armstrong declared a statewide disaster to help the communities affected by the damage. And according to local leaders, hundreds of volunteers and other groups like the American Red Cross have also stepped in to help.

“They had everything that could pick up a tree or move a tree out. Our seeding equipment, we have farmers bringing tractors in. We’ve had volunteers come in with pickups and trailers. We had everything opened, pretty much moved around town by Saturday night.”

“We’re a tight knit community and like you’ve seen on the news and the reports we have come together, we have put together a lot of volunteer groups that have helped clean up fields and help clean up residents,” said John Anderson, Enderlin Fire Chief.

Armstrong will be working with state officials to provide the funds these communities need to recover.