After months of seemingly limitless rain, and following unanticipated downpours in Leominster and elsewhere final week, the Biden Administration has declared {that a} state of emergency exists in Massachusetts.
Gov. Maura Healey, on Monday, introduced she would declare a state of emergency existed statewide after she toured rain broken elements of the Commonwealth. Healey defined the declaration would permit federal funds to be freed up for catastrophe response. Over the weekend, Biden’s staff introduced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would intervene within the Bay State.
“The President’s action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe,” the company mentioned in a launch.
Assistance might be made out there for all 14 Massachusetts counties, based on FEMA.
After a storm parked itself over Leominster for hours Monday night and drenched the small metropolis in nearly a foot of rain, Healey mentioned an emergency declaration would “expedite our efforts to deliver relief to impacted communities and bolster our ability to access federal resources.”
Three days later, the governor would activate 50 members of the Massachusetts National Guard and declare a second state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Lee’s potential impacts. In doing so, Healey requested FEME challenge a Pre-Disaster Emergency Declaration.
“I am declaring a state of emergency ahead of anticipated impacts from Hurricane Lee to ensure that the state can mobilize quickly to respond. I am also calling on FEMA to issue a Stafford Act declaration to free up resources that we can use to help communities with any recovery that might be necessary,” Healey mentioned.
Over the weekend, after it turned clear that Hurricane Lee had been downgraded to a tropical storm which might cross by the Bay State, Healey declared that the state of emergency had handed.
“We’re relieved that the impacts of Hurricane Lee have been minimal across Massachusetts and grateful for the public safety officials who have been responding to and preparing for severe weather and flooding throughout the week. Flooding devastated several of our communities this week and we will continue to support them as they move into the recovery phase. We thank the people of Massachusetts for their preparation and resiliency,” Healey mentioned in a press release.
FEMA’s declaration will authorize the company to “identify, mobilize and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, under the public assistance program will be provided at 75% federal funding.”
E. Craig Levy, Sr., a FEMA worker, was tapped to be the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal restoration operations in Massachusetts. Levy served in the identical capability in Pennsylvania in 2021 following Hurricane Ida.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”