FEDERAL ASSISTANCE
OKLAHOMA CITY – Despite the presidential declaration of a state of emergency in Oklahoma because of the recent winter storm, Cotton County commissioners indicated they do not intend to apply for federal assistance. Comanche County’s commissioners and city officials in Lawton and Walters were still assessing damage reports on February 26.
After spending two days in the nation’s capital, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced last month that President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Oklahoma on February 18.
The declaration enables municipalities, counties, and Native American tribes in all 77 Oklahoma counties to receive Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) public assistance for infrastructure repairs and other costs associated with responding to the winter storm.
FEMA has seven categories (A through G) of public assistance, said Amy McGlone, public information officer with Comanche County Emergency Management. FEMA “routinely specifies which categories are eligible for financial assistance and which are not.” The latest declaration is for Category B, which is Emergency Protective Measures related to Mass Care and Shelters, “which we did not have, not including snow and ice removal,” she said.
Meanwhile, homeowners, renters and business owners in 16 Oklahoma counties, including Stephens, Jefferson, Cotton and Comanche, can apply for Individual Assistance from FEMA if they were adversely affected by the recent winter storm.
The emergency declaration announced recently “includes the Individuals and Households Program,” Ms. McGlone said.
FEMA will provide financial and direct services to households that were affected by the disaster, McGlone said. “This program is designed to help meet the citizens’ needs and supplement recovery efforts, but it is not a replacement for those who have no insurance or are underinsured.”
McGlone advised citizens whose property was damaged in the winter storm to call 1 (800) 621-FEMA (3362) or visit www.disasterassistance.gov for more information about how to receive assistance.
As for Comanche County, “It is far too soon to speculate on the degree of damage that the county has experienced,” McGlone said on February 26. “We are still assessing the situation.” Comanche County has 1,280 miles of county roads, said Randy Robinson, executive director of the Oklahoma Cooperative Circuit Engineering Districts Board.
Cotton County did not have enough damage to its roads to meet the qualification threshold for federal financial assistance, a spokesperson for the commissioners said. Cotton County has 949 miles of county roads, OCCEDB records show.
The City of Walters was “gathering information to determine whether we meet the qualification threshold” for FEMA assistance, City Manager Shawn Strange told the Ledger on February 26.
“This is a slow, very lengthy process,” said Strange, who formerly was the Cotton County Emergency Management director. For example, some counties are “still working with FEMA” on road damages the counties experienced in 2015, ’16 and ’17, he said.
Strange said he hasn’t been notified of the categories for which municipalities can apply to FEMA for financial aid.
“I don’t expect it to include debris” such as tree limbs, which sustained heavy damage in the ice storm last October, he said. But it might include streets, water and electrical lines.
Some asphalt streets in Walters were damaged from the frigid temperatures, he indicated. The town also experienced 50 minutes of rolling blackouts when the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, the town’s electricity provider, complied with a request from the Southwest Power Pool, which manages the electric grid and wholesale power market for the central United States, Strange said.
Also, “We lost several thousand gallons of water” from broken water lines, he said. Pipes in several buildings in Walters burst because of the subfreezing temperatures, Strange said, but among the factors FEMA considers are whether the owner was insured and met the deductible on the insurance claim.
“We won’t know much until FEMA tells us what categories they’ll open up,” he said.