Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas will receive $70.2 million in disaster aid from the federal government to help the state recover from flooding and tornadoes, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announcement Wednesday.

The emergency funding will help the state’s long-term disaster recovery and is in addition to $25 million HUD allocated to the state in 2008 through its Community Development Block Grant Program, the agency said in a news release.

Last year, Congress appropriated more than $6 billion in supplemental funding for “necessary expenses related to disaster relief, long-term recovery and restoration of infrastructure, housing and economic revitalization in areas affected by hurricanes, floods and other disasters.”

Last year, a series of storms, which included flooding and tornadoes, struck the state, as well as remnants of two hurricanes.

So far this year, the state has been hit by an ice storm, several tornadoes and flooding.