Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States, and W. Craig Fugate, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency - Federal Disaster Declaration for New York
Letter
The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
The Honorable W. Craig Fugate
Administrator
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20472
Dear President Obama and Administrator Fugate:
We write today to urge the expeditious approval of New York State's recent request for a federal disaster declaration in response to the heavy rain and severe flooding that struck twenty-six New York counties on April 26, 2011. The affected counties include Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Madison, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Ulster, Washington, Warren, and Yates.
Joint assessments conducted by FEMA and New York State Office of Emergency Management (NYSOEM) estimate that the April 26, 2011, storms caused more than $38 million in debris removal costs and damage to critical infrastructure, including major roads and bridges. Damage assessment teams also estimate that the massive storm inflicted damage upon more than 1,000 residences, destroying at least fourteen homes in the process.
Given these estimates, New York has requested Public Assistance for twenty-one counties including Allegany, Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Madison, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario Steuben, Tioga, Ulster, Warren, and Yates. FEMA's Public Assistance program provides assistance for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and the repair, replacement, or restoration of disaster-damaged, public owned facilities and certain nonprofit organizations. New York has also requested individual assistance. FEMA Individual Assistance programs provide emergency housing, financial assistance, and crisis counseling.
It is apparent that New York State has surpassed both state and per capita threshold requirements, and we wholeheartedly support the State's request for Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, and the implementation of statewide Hazard Mitigation support.
We urge you to quickly approve New York State's disaster declaration request and thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to working with you to secure every possible resource to assist those New Yorkers as they recover from this storm.
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