Massachusetts Delegation Urges President to Expand Disaster Declaration
MASSACHUSETTS DELEGATION URGES PRESIDENT TO EXPAND DISASTER DECLARATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The following letter was sent to President Bush today by the entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation:
October 21, 2005
Dear Mr. President:
We're writing to express our appreciation for your decision to make federal public assistance available to Bristol County, and to urge you to expand the declaration to a major disaster that will make both public and individual assistance available for Bristol, Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, Worcester, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Plymouth counties in our state. The recent flooding has created havoc in the lives of thousands of our citizens, and they deserve an immediate, clear and generous response by the Administration to reassure them that federal assistance will be available.
You have the authority to make federal disaster assistance available before preliminary disaster assessments are complete. We urge you to exercise that authority in light of the obvious extent of this disaster. Across the Commonwealth, families are being sheltered in schools or with relatives, sewage is backing up into their basements, and power outages are common. Now is the time to use the full scope of your authority to provide relief and security to the flood victims of Massachusetts.
Some families have now been out of their homes in Western Massachusetts for nearly two weeks. The flooding began before Columbus Day, and the damage has now expanded across the state, so that families are being dislocated from their homes, their jobs and their communities.
Our regional FEMA office is over-extended. Today, there are only six FEMA assessment members in the Commonwealth, when twice that number is needed to make damage assessments. Already, over 2000 properties have been identified with some level of damage, including 69 destroyed homes. Thousands of households have been evacuated because of the flood. The Whittenton Pond Dam in Taunton remains in critical condition and could create a huge demand for individual assistance very quickly.
For these reasons, we urge you to act immediately to declare a major disaster for these flood-affected areas. Please do not make our constituents wait any longer.
Respectfully,
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Senator John F. Kerry
Representative Edward Markey
Representative Barney Frank
Representative Richard Neal
Representative John Olver
Representative Martin Meehan
Representative William Delahunt
Representative James McGovern
Representative John Tierney
Representative Michael Capuano
Representative Stephen Lynch
http://www.house.gov/olver/news/pr051021.html