Massachusetts cities and towns hit hard by summer flooding set to receive disaster aid

More than 30 cities and towns hard hit by floods and extreme weather last year are in line to receive a portion of $10 million in disaster relief, with four communities slated to accept over $1 million, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration announced Saturday.

Heavy storms and torrential downpours soaked farms and fields last July, leaving more than 1,000 acres of crops destroyed and farmers scrambling to survive after losing crops that were near ready to harvest. Months later, 37 municipalities in Berkshire, Worcester, Franklin, Plymouth, Norfolk, Middlesex, and Essex Counties were selected for state aid.

“We’re proud to be delivering the first round of these funds to 37 cities and towns to relieve some of the burden they’ve been facing, and we’re also going to increase support for municipalities in their efforts to reduce the risk of flooding in their communities,” Healey said in a statement.

North Adams, Fitchburg, Conway, and Deerfield will each receive more than $1 million. Other cities and towns are receiving between $20,000 to $725,000, the Healey administration said.

The disaster relief funding was included in a spending bill Healey signed in December that was at one point held up in a procedural dispute in the Legislature partly because of $250 million from state-run shelters housing migrant and local homeless families.

Another round of hazardous September storms wiped out roads and homes in Leominster and North Attleboro, among other places. Another $5 million in disaster “will be released later this spring to support municipalities impacted” by those storms, the Healey administration said.