Agency will assess Utah flood damage

For the second time this year, FEMA is town. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials arrived in Utah this past week to perform a preliminary assessment of damage caused by flooding across the state in the past two months.

Depending on what they find, and what the state decides, counties could see some financial help in recovering from the effects of well-above-average runoff and rainfall.

But a FEMA spokesman warned that this is only the first step toward getting federal aid; there are no guarantees.

"The purpose is really just information-gathering," said Jerry DeFelice, region public information officer. "It's the first step in determining if the damages would qualify for federal assistance, and it is not a guarantee that there will be a federal disaster declaration."

FEMA employees will work closely with state and local officials over the next two weeks to evaluate sites that may qualify for aid. Those sites include publicly-owned infrastructure, such as roads and sewer systems, but not privately-owned homes.

"There's a lot of ground work to do, and it requires the support of the state and local officials to go to the site, and substantiate these damages and make determinations as to what the cause is and so forth," DeFelice said.

After the evaluations are completed, the state will prepare a report for the governor, who then makes the final call on sending a formal disaster assistance request. Counties in the state could then be declared Presidential Disaster areas and receive federal aid.

FEMA currently plans to evaluate sites in nine counties — Box Elder, Cache, Iron, Sevier, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch and Weber — as well as the Ute Indian Reservation. But DeFelice noted that more areas can be added as more information comes in.

The process is the same one that Washington County went through earlier this year to request aid, but state officials say this disaster situation is somewhat unusual.

"This is something new that Utah, hasn't done before in terms of an ongoing on-going disaster for weeks," said Lt. Doug McCleve, state Division of Emergency Services spokesman. "These kinds of disasters are usually a quick incident like a tornado that they can come in afterward and see if it applies, where this is an ongoing, six- to eight-week problem, that's something new. We've never tried for something like this, so we don't know if we're eligible or not."

Over the past few months, Emergency Services officials have been keeping tabs on damaged areas in hopes that Utah might be able to apply for federal aid. Lt. Doug McCleve, state Division of Emergency Services spokesman, said based on its assessment, the division believes Utah has a good chance of qualifying.