President Barack Obama has signed Kentucky’s request for a major disaster declaration, giving the state and local governments much-needed federal assistance. The estimated cost to clean up following the recent ice storm will likely exceed $50 million, according to Gov. Steve Beshear.
“The White House moved quickly,” Beshear said during a press conference this afternoon. “This is good news for Kentucky.”
A week after snow and ice blanketed much of Kentucky, nearly 200,000 residents are still without power, 27 Kentuckians have died and 101 counties have declared a state of emergency.
Nancy Ward, acting Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, attended the press conference after surveying the damage with the governor today. She says the president’s signature grants immediate federal aid to the commonwealth, local governments and a handful of nonprofit organizations.
As a result of the president’s declaration, FEMA will start debris cleanup operations immediately and the federal government ultimately will pick up 75 percent of the cost. Ward says FEMA will continue to assess the damage to determine whether the state should received 100 percent reimbursement on a cost-sharing basis.
Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson thanked the president for the quick response and said the declaration means cleanup will hit the ground running: “We all feel confident that we’ll receive proper funding.”
Abramson estimated the cost of the ice storm for Metro Louisville has exceeded $2.5 million. Currently, Metro government still is receiving federal funding for cleanup associated with Hurricane Ike, which swept through the city in September. Louisville was set to receive $3.4 million as a result of that storm, and has received about one-third of that money so far.
Another topic discussed at today’s press conference was the fact that meal kits sent to Kentucky may have contained packets of peanut butter that were part of the national recall due to salmonella. Beshear says the state stopped distributing FEMA meals with possible salmonella contamination after federal officials notified him of the potential problem.
FEMA officials learned last week that meals with peanut butter might have been contaminated. Fewer than 10,000 meal kits fit the current national alert and were removed from the shipment warehouse in Texas.
“We don’t expect any trouble with this,” Beshear says. “No one will miss a meal and FEMA officials have assured me personally that this is a precautionary measure and there is no reason to suspect that anyone’s health is at risk.”