County likely to qualify for federal aid, officials say
Montgomery County emergency management officials feel confident that damage assessments from Hurricane Irene will top $2.3 million – the threshold to receive federal disaster aid to help municipal governments in their clean-up.
As for individual homeowners that sustained damage during the storm – they may be out of luck.
"We dodged a bullet on this one," Sullivan told the county's commissioners this morning. "It doesn't mean we didn't sustain a lot of damage, but I'm optimistic we're going to get some public assistance for the county."
Damage assessors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are expected to tour the county Friday gathering information to help make that determination.
They rely on a closely guarded set of criteria to come up with judgments on disaster damage that may vary widely from those of insurance companies.
The threshold for so-called "public assistance" – or aid doled out to local governments for repair – is a much lower bar than that for "individual assistance" – in which federal tax dollars are given to local residents hit hardest by the storm.
It could be weeks before official damage assessment numbers emerge, but Sullivan said there are other options for those grappling with costly repairs in the county's hardest hit communities like Whitemarsh, Upper Moreland and Collegeville. Some public assistance from FEMA could go toward funding small business loans to help local merchants get back on their feet.
But while questions still surround the clean-up, it sounds like the county's pre-storm planning paid off:
For the first time, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency dispatched help in the form of 15 swift water rescue teams before the storm. They were needed. The county's 911 dispatch logged 75 rescue calls Saturday night into Sunday morning and 4,000 incidents as Irene rolled in.
In the two days after the storm, four assessment teams fanned out to come up with preliminary damage estimates. Sullivan was not prepared Wednesday to put a dollar amount on their findings.
Earlier reports that about 300 people turned up at county shelters were greatly inflated. Final numbers? About 60 showed up at the Cheltenham shelter, 22 in East Norriton and only two in Pottstown.
People don't like going to shelters unless they really have to," Sullivan said.
Under federal laws passed since Hurricane Katrina, evacuation shelters are required to accommodate pets. In Irene's wake local shelters supported two cats, two dogs and even a frog thanks to the county's Animal Rescue Team.