Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Presidential Disaster Declaration From Blizzard

Letter

Dear Mr. President:

We write to urge you to grant Governor Dannel P. Malloy's request for a presidential disaster declaration arising from a massive blizzard that hit Connecticut earlier this year.

In late January 2015, our state was slammed by a winter storm that brought record levels or near-record levels of snow to many communities in Connecticut. The storm lasted over two days in some places, beginning on January 26 and ending early on January 28, leaving some municipalities with as much as 33 inches of snow. The blizzard required our state and many of our municipalities to exhaust scarce resources removing the snow so that roads would be safe enough for travel and critical services could remain available to our constituents. This important work strained budgets and forced our state, local communities and tribal nations to face large, unanticipated costs. After the storm, Connecticut faced record cold and additional snowfall totals that continued to surpass normal levels in many places. All of this happened after Connecticut experienced other winter storms and disasters in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

On March 27, 2015 Governor Malloy requested a major disaster declaration for Windham, New London, Tolland and New Haven Counties as a result of the late January storm. The Governor's application is pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (P.L. 93-288), which provides financial aid and assistance for communities hit by major winter storms like the one that impacted Connecticut. As the Governor's disaster declaration request makes clear, the state and affected counties can all demonstrate that they meet or exceed cost threshold requirements for a disaster declaration. It is vital that you grant the Governor's request in order to help our state recoup losses and carry out the process of recovering from the January storm.

Your administration has already been cooperative in helping Connecticut assess and evaluate damage from the storm. We appreciate the administration's efforts so far and your prompt consideration of this request.

Sincerely,