3:45 p.m. Update:
Montgomery and Clinton Counties are among a list of nine Indiana counties whose appeal for federal winter weather funding have been approved.
Governor Mike Pence had asked federal administrators to reconsider the applications of about 30 counties that indicated the cold, snowy winter sapped their emergency preparedness budgets more than planned.
Montgomery County Emergency Management Director Shari Harrington says the bad weather days came so close together that in some cases cleanup from the first blast wasn’t complete when subsequent fronts blew through.
“The highway department had to make room to make room for more snow," she says. "So even before the snow hit, they were already out. Because if you remember, we had five or six inches prior to that storm. So they were doing snow removal so they could do snow removal.”
For the nine counties added to Indiana’s list, FEMA will grant up to 75-percent of the cost of battling the winter weather during the worst 48-hour or 72-hour stretch, depending on how far over budget each individual county went.
1:00 p.m. Update:
Nine more Indiana counties will receive federal help paying for January’s winter storm.
Last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied Indiana’s request for assistance to help recover from January’s devastating winter storms. After Governor Mike Pence filed an appeal, FEMA came through with public dollars for 19 counties.
Pence announced Tuesday his continued appeal yielded help for nine more counties – Blackford, Clinton, Fulton, Hamilton, Johnson, LaGrange, Marion, Montgomery and Vanderburgh.
FEMA will provide grants that pay for 75-percent of expenses related to road and utility damage, debris removal, damaged buildings and equipment and rescue operations. Pence calls the FEMA decision good news for local communities, as the public dollars will help replenish millions to city and town budgets. More counties could still receive assistance.
