By: Maryland GovPics
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied Maryland’s request for financial help for lower Eastern Shore residents affected by Superstorm Sandy.
“This decision will make it more difficult for hard hit residents of the Eastern Shore to recover from the destruction caused by Superstorm Sandy,” Gov. Martin O’Malley said in a statement.
Maryland Emergency Management Agency officials said they would appeal the decision. The state had sought assistance for residents in Dorchester, Somerset and Worcester counties.
“It’s going to be very tough on the community and the county and the residents. It is what it is,” said P.J. Purnell, the mayor of Crisfield in Somerset County, which was hit hard by the storm.
The state has 30 days to appeal the denial. FEMA officials said that the agency determined that state and local volunteer agencies were able to handle the damage without federal help for individual residents.
“It was determined that is not beyond the capability of the state and local volunteers agencies to give assistance at this time,” said Mike Wade, a FEMA spokesman.
To successfully appeal the denial, Maryland needs to show that the state and local governments exceeded their capacity to help citizens.
“We need to get more documentation about the damage. We are doing that now,” said Ed McDonough, a public information officer for MEMA. He asked people with damage from Sandy who have not yet reported it to the state to do so.
“That’s the information that we need,” to appeal the decision, McDonough said.
FEMA is helping to pay for part of the cost of rebuilding public property damaged by the storm like government buildings and roads in 17 Maryland counties and Baltimore city that were affected by the storm.
Joe Lill says
Our district voted for a man running for President that said in June of 2012 during the Republican primaries that we can not afford FEMA and that disaster relief is the responsibility of the individual States. We also reelected a US Congressman that has said we don’t have the money to afford anything. Hopefully, this isn’t a vindictive response to a request from our District, but maybe we should be careful of what we ask ( vote ) for.
Joe Diamond says
Joe,
Recently hear on Tv from Sen. Barbara Mikulski………….approx= “. . . what? my people got wet?
Later same evening……….head of FEMA……approx = . . .Gulp! “…always a hard decision..I’ll look at the local decision.”
Stay tuned. + FEMA is to organization as pasta is to spaghetti. It is an agency made from other agencies with all kinds of goals and jobs. I bet when victorious office seekers his Washington looking for jobs they end up there. They never leave……bet ya.
Pray FEMA spares Piney Neck!
Joe
Joe Diamond says
Turn up the lights & keep the volume on high!
FEMA is a government agency and as such takes direction from elected officials. The timing is not great………..the sitting president is not running for re election. The actual number of persons living down there is low. If there is an area where individuals have been living under the table and off the books it would be down there. For many reasons the population could be under reported.
Nonetheless, FEMA was on the ground waiting for the last hurricane, Sandy, to hit NJ & NY. That FEMA office did not want to look like the FEMA office that sat around and waited for Katrina to come ashore. Sombody gave them a push to skip the request for aid after a disaster struck, The governor of NJ was on film each evening with FEMA guys waiting for anything that might interrupt that flow to federal money to those voters.
Keep the text “MD wants the same federal money NJ got!” This is a public relations issue.
Joe