El Paso Meets $25 Million Threshold For FEMA Aid
EL PASO, Texas (AP) – City and county officials said Thursday that last week’s flooding left a wake of public infrastructure damages of at least $25 million – the threshold for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid.
“It is our understanding that we have met the requirements,” El Paso Mayor John Cook said of preliminary damage estimates. But FEMA help is not a guarantee, Cook said. President Bush must declare El Paso a federal disaster area for any federal money to come to the area.
Cook said federal emergency officials finished taking a toll of the damage Wednesday and are preparing a report for Bush’s review.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes and the state’s two U.S. Senators have already asked the president to make the declaration. Cook said he is confident that Bush will sign the order and plans to “do everything I can” to ensure that it happens quickly.
Meanwhile, Cook and El Paso County Judge Dolores Briones said contingency plans are being developed to help area residents whose homes and property were either wiped out or severely damaged.
Some of those plans include asking state legislators for help in securing low-interest loans and easing restrictions on applications for food stamps from the state. Briones has cautioned area residents not to count on FEMA to pay for every loss.
If federal help is approved, she warned, it would likely be only enough to “get you on your feet.” Earlier this week, Cook said as many as 300 homes had been completely destroyed and more than $100 million in damages had been reported regionwide, but said the estimates could rise.
More than 200 tons of residential storm debris had been removed by Thursday. Cook said Thursday that new damage estimates would not be released until a decision had been made about federal aid.
El Paso was swamped by a series of storms last week that left nearly twice the average annual rainfall in the area.
An all-day deluge on Aug. 1 dumped about 7 inches of rain at the airport, the official rain collection site for the area, though other parts of the city received up to 15 inches of rain that day.
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL Associated Press Writer
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-08-10-06 1650EDT
