HARRISBURG, Ill. — Armed with up-to-date damage estimates, local and state leaders submitted an appeal Friday they hope will reverse FEMA’s earlier decision to withhold federal disaster aid to five Illinois counties hit by deadly tornadoes earlier this year.

The decision by FEMA to deny federal assistance – which would include money to provide low-interest loans for repairs, legal services and other help not covered by private insurance – shocked many in Harrisburg, the hardest hit of all towns on Feb. 29.

It prompted an immediate sit-down with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, which led to Fugate’s agreement that Illinois could submit updated damage totals and that FEMA would reconsider its decision.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg called FEMA’s agreement “a godsend for us,” adding that estimates of damages across a wide section of south Harrisburg were still being discovered two weeks after the storm.

“This is huge for us to go in and do what we need to do. It gives us a chance,” Gregg said. The tornado, he said, damaged “hundreds and hundreds of homes – everything from slightly damaged to gone, literally wiped off the city map.”

Located within city limits, nearly the entire operation at the Farmer Supply Co-op was wiped out, including two grain bins, a warehouse and two other buildings. Manager Danny Evans estimated the damage just to the Co-op at about $1 million.

In its initial application for federal aid, authorities listed a total of 426 homes that were either totally or substantially destroyed in Saline, Gallatin, Randolph, Union and Williamson counties.

Quinn told reporters in Chicago that the updated total is 441 homes, along with damage to at least 100 businesses within the five-county area. Damage totals are estimated at more than $9 million.

Also at stake is money that FEMA could provide to local governments to help defray the costs of cleanup, overtime and repairs to infrastructure.

“We’re all in this together,” said Quinn, adding he “implored” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to free up the FEMA relief. “I think we did the maximum of what a state can do, and I think it’s important that the federal government help out as well. We will work as hard as we can to make this (federal aid) a reality,” Quinn added.

FEMA cited the area’s significant amount of volunteer help and donated items flowing into the area as one reason for denying federal aid. The denial letter states the damage to southern Illinois counties “was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments and voluntary agencies,” said Patti Thompson, communications manager at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

Thompson noted that Illinois does not have a program similar to FEMA’s for aid.

At the same time FEMA announced its decision to deny aid to southern Illinois, it also denied federal aid to parts of Ohio and Missouri hit be tornadoes in early March. But it approved aid for parts of southern Indiana and northern Kentucky.

Illinois’ effort to have FEMA’s decision reversed includes a letter to President Barack Obama signed by the state’s Congressional lawmakers, including Durbin, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican.

The letter states that “without help, this disaster may have provided a blow the local economy simply cannot recover from fully.”