December flooding leave you unemployed? Federal assistance is available
Washington workers who became unemployed due to December’s widespread flooding are now eligible to apply for federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA).
The assistance is available to legally eligible workers, including those who are self-employed, who lost their main source of work due to the flooding that occurred between Dec. 5-19, 2025, but do not otherwise qualify for unemployment benefits.
“We’re doing all we can to get resources to Washingtonians impacted by this historic flooding,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said in an announcement about the benefits. “Our work with our federal partners has secured additional unemployment assistance for people who lost work based on storm damage. In order to get it, you have to apply — submit your application today.”
To qualify, recipients must have had at least one week of unemployment or partial unemployment after the date of the disaster. They also need to have been unemployed for at least one of the following reasons:
- Your business or your employer’s business closed due to the disaster.
- You couldn’t reach your business or your employer’s business due to the disaster.
- You were scheduled to start a job or work for yourself. Due to the disaster, the work no longer exists, or you were unable to reach it.
- You became the major supporter of a household. The previous head of the household died due to the disaster.
- You couldn’t work at a job or for yourself due to an injury from the disaster.
Workers may qualify for benefits if their unemployment resulted from at least one of the following:
- The physical damage or destruction of the place of employment.
- The physical inaccessibility of the place of employment due to its closure by the federal, Tribal, state or local government in immediate response to the disaster.
- Lack of work or loss of revenues if, before the disaster, the employer or self-employed business received at least a majority of revenue or income from an entity in the major disaster area damaged or destroyed in the disaster or an entity in the major disaster area closed by the federal, Tribal, state or local government.
Workers living or working in the following counties may be eligible:
- Chelan
- Grays Harbor
- King
- Lewis
- Pacific
- Pierce
- Skagit
- Snohomish
- Thurston
- Whatcom
Affected workers from the following tribes may also be eligible:
- Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation
- Lummi Nation
- Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
- Nisqually Indian Tribe
- Nooksack Indian Tribe
- Puyallup Tribe
- Quinault Indian Nation
- Samish Indian Nation
- Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe
- Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe
- Snoqualmie Indian Tribe
- Squaxin Island Tribe
- Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians
- Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
- Tulalip Tribes
- Upper Skagit Indian Tribe
The deadline to apply for DUA benefits is June 8. Visit the Washington State Employment Security Department’s DUA webpage for step-by-step application instructions.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 12:22 PM.
