Gov. JB Pritzker asked the federal government for disaster aid covering Cook County after severe August storms.
The request, filed Tuesday, Sept. 15, seeks a presidential major disaster declaration for eight Illinois counties hit by a derecho and storms from Aug. 11–16, 2026, according to the governor's office. Cook County is on the list. DuPage County is not.
That distinction matters locally. Villa Park and Oakbrook Terrace sit entirely within DuPage County, so neither community is included in the federal request. Elmhurst straddles both counties, meaning only residents on the Cook County side would fall within the declaration's scope if approved.
What the declaration would unlock
If the federal government grants the request, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Individual Assistance program would offer grants for temporary housing and home repairs, plus low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. Local governments and qualifying nonprofits in the covered counties could also tap Public Assistance funding for debris removal, emergency response costs and repairs to damaged roads, bridges and public infrastructure.
The request followed joint preliminary damage assessments conducted by local, state and federal teams to determine whether destruction warranted federal help.
The storms
The National Weather Service confirmed five tornadoes from the Aug. 11 system and straight-line winds nearing 100 mph in southern Cook County, North Shore Weekly reported. ComEd logged 3,862 outages affecting 188,175 customers that evening across Cook County. Pritzker issued a state disaster proclamation Aug. 18 covering 15 counties, and on Sept. 15 extended it for another 30 days.
Past FEMA denials cloud request
Whether the declaration is approved remains an open question. The federal government denied Illinois' most recent FEMA requests in 2025 after storms and flooding hit Chicago and the suburbs, Capitol News Illinois reported. Cook County then approved a $15 million one-time assistance program on its own.
Kaila Lariviere of Cook County Emergency Management and Regional Security told ABC7 Chicago on Sept. 2 that the outlook was not encouraging. "We got denied for both our regular process and an appeals process for the massive floods we experienced last July and August of 2025," Lariviere said.
A Politico analysis cited by Capitol News Illinois found Democrat-led states saw 23% of their disaster requests granted in the first year of the current administration, compared to 89% for Republican-led states.
Indiana has already received a disaster declaration for damage from the same Aug. 11 storms, according to ABC7 Chicago.
Pritzker said in a statement that he fully expects the request to be granted given the scale of destruction documented in damage assessments. No timeline for a federal decision has been announced.
