President Barack Obama has authorized additional FEMA assistance for Connecticut and its cities, towns and tribes.
Gov. Dannel Malloy filed an amended application for federal assistance on Tuesday and the White House notified the governor’s office on Friday morning that they authorized more assistance.
What that means is that all eight counties in the state have received category a aid, for debris removal, and category b, for emergency protective measures, such as overtime, equipment and fuel assistance for costs incurred during a 72-hour period.
FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of eligible costs and the state, tribal nations or municipalities are responsible for 25 percent.
The state will choose the 72-hour window for re-imbursement after reaching out to officials from cities, towns and tribal officials to identify in which period most costs were incurred.
Malloy is also moving forward with a major disaster declaration, which will include damage assessments from all 169 cities and towns.
Preliminary assessments will begin on Monday. If that is approved, it could eliminate the need to find a specific 72-hour period.
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“I appreciate President Obama granting this designation,” Malloy said. “But while this is good news for the state, and our cities and towns, there is much more work to be done. This really is the beginning of our state’s recovery from this devastating October storm, and even after power is fully restored, we’ll have weeks – and even months – of recovery on an individual and state, city and town basis.”
