Governor Hassan Appeals FEMA Decision to Deny Disaster Extension for January Blizzard

Press Release

To help support Hillsborough, Rockingham and Strafford counties with the full snow removal from the blizzard and severe winter storm that occurred between January 26 and January 28, 2015, Governor Maggie Hassan today appealed the decision of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) not to extend the period of the disaster declaration that the State of New Hampshire received for that storm.

In March, the federal government granted a major disaster declaration for Hillsborough, Rockingham and Strafford counties for storm-related activities between January 26 and January 28. It granted the Governor's request to extend the time period for removing snow from roofs, but denied the Governor's request for an extended timeframe to support snow removal activities -- particularly the removal of snow from congested downtowns for public safety purposes -- beyond the original 48-hour period. Today's letter is an appeal of that denial.

"The additional weather patterns occurring through February 22 required an unprecedented response by state and local jurisdictions," Governor Hassan wrote. "The overall snow fall levels coupled with the continued storms forced local communities to drastically change how they provided snow response. Typically, communities plow the roads and then immediately remove (i.e., relocate) any snow that creates a safety concern. Under normal circumstances, this would have been completed within the approved 48-hour period. In this case, jurisdictions had not yet completed the removal of snow from the January 26-28 storm prior to the additional snowfall brought in by the later storms."

The original disaster declaration covers the Preliminary Damage Assessment conducted by FEMA and state and local emergency management officials found that the statewide costs for this event's response efforts exceeded $3,293,000.00, including $1,554,335.40 in Hillsborough County, $1,226,158.15 in Rockingham County, and $512,565.13 in Strafford County. In addition, the federal government clarified in April that it also covered expenses pursuant to snow removal from public building roofs as an emergency protective action.

"Because the snow from the original storm could not be removed until outside the 48-hour disaster period, we ask that all of the snow removal (i.e., relocation) costs required to make our communities safe be reimbursed for a period extending from the approved date of January 26 through February 22," Governor Hassan wrote.

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