After an initial survey and  monitoring the effects of flooding throughout Ionia County, the Ionia County Office of Emergency Management requested the Ionia County Board of Commissioners to declare a local state of emergency. The commission’s Vice Chair James Banks declared the county in a state of emergency as of Feb. 22 at 10:10 a.m.

A local state of emergency is used to notify state officials that the county is experiencing an incident that is taxing the county’s resources.  The declaration is the first step in tracking activities and damage in case the need should arise to ask for state or federal assistance.

Currently Ionia County is handling the incident with local resources and will request assistance from the state or federal levels of government if it is needed.