Harrisonburg is now eligible for federal disaster aid to help pay for costs associated with the derecho in late June.

FEMA has added the city to the state's disaster declaration after new damage assessments were conducted.

City officials said they have accounted for at least $178,000 so far.

The type of aid they can apply for is public assistance, meaning it includes the type of work the local government has done to recover from the storm.

The city has the opportunity to be reimbursed for costs associated with the road clearing from trees, limbs that were down, getting rid of debris, work the Harrisonburg Electric Commission has done to recover power loss and the response of emergency services, fire and rescue and police.

Harrisonburg Fire Department Chief Larry Shifflett said if the city does not get this funding, it will not keep them from doing projects that have been planned and budgeted for.

He said if they do get it, it means they will not have to dip into their surplus funds.

"We're getting ready to go into hurricane season. We're getting ready to go into the winter season where we have snow and ice removal and those types of things. And even some snow and ice storms qualify for these disaster declarations, and we've become eligible for recovery for those costs. A lot of them are not," said Shifflett.

Shifflett said the requirements to apply for this aid are based on population.

For Harrisonburg, they would have had to come up with at least $165,000 in damages to apply for this public aid.

© Copyright 2013 WHSV / Gray Television Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.