CHENANGO COUNTY – Last week, Chenango County was added to the growing list of New York counties to receive a disaster declaration from the federal government following the severe August storms which caused widespread damage across the state and more than $600,000 worth of damage locally.
As a result of the declaration, county and local municipalities will now have the opportunity to apply for disaster assistance funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Office. The process will begin on Thursday when representatives from both agencies will hold an applicant briefing.
County Emergency Management Officer Matt Beckwith said he has reached out to each local municipality to make sure they are aware of the meeting, which will take place at the Chenango County Public Safety Building.
According to Beckwith, the meeting will provide an overview of the relief program and include discussions of eligibility requirements, details on the application process, claim preparation, documentation, funding and payments.
“A lot of them are familiar (with the process),” said City of Norwich Emergency Management Officer A. Wesley Jones, as many local agencies went through the process just three years ago. That doesn’t mean they should skip out on the Thursday meeting, however, Jones said, since there have been some changes to the rules and requirements.
It is not only areas hardest hit by the storms which are eligible to apply for the disaster relief funds, he explained. Any municipality with $1,000 or more worth of damage may apply.
When FEMA and SEMO inspectors visited Chenango County on Aug. 17, they gave a preliminary estimate of damage caused during the storms of $613,080 based strictly on what they saw first hand in the towns of Oxford, Greene and Coventry. According to Jones, the final figures are expected to be much higher than that.
Even with the disaster assistance funds, local municipalities will end up picking up a portion of the cost of repairing damage from the storms. According to Jones, through the Public Assistance Grant Program, FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of the total cost. SEMO will pick up an additional 12.5 percent, he explained, and “the applicant is responsible for the remainder.”
New York State Governor David Paterson has requested that President Barack Obama declare disasters in a total of 10 New York counties. Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Erie counties were the first to be approved, followed by Chenango and Cortland counties.
“This aid is a critical step in helping communities throughout Chenango and Cortland repair and rebuild and after last month’s devastating floods,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, who sent a letter to the president last month urging him to make the declaration. “The counties were overwhelmed, both physically and financially, and the federal government should be doing everything it can to assist with the recovery.”