President Joe Biden has approved a request from Governor Kathy Hochul for a Major Disaster Declaration to provide help to communities affected by Tropical Storm Debby in early August.
The governor noted that the storm caused extreme damage across parts of the state last month, and among the counties that will be getting federal aid as part of this designation are Ontario, Steuben, Yates and Allegany.
Steuben County Manager Jack Wheeler said that storm caused damage estimated to be in the “tens of millions of dollars.”
He said the federal designation will provide funding for municipalities to repair buildings and other government-owned property.
“Any public infrastructure,” said Wheeler. “So that would be roads, bridges, culverts, buildings or equipment. In one case, I do know that during the response, the village or the town of Canisteo Fire Department sustained damage to one of their tankers.”
The Director of Public Safety in Steuben County, Tim Marshall, noted that some of the damage caused by the storm still needs to be repaired.
“We’ve actually got several roads that we’re still working on, just trying to repair the pavement,” said Marshall. “And then, of course, we’ve got a lot of stream work that needs to be done, in and around the bridges to make that the water is going to be able to flow through there if we get another heavy rain. So there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”
The Major Disaster Declaration secures federal assistance, according to Gov. Hochul, primarily through FEMA’s Public Assistance Program. Hochul noted the federal designation also provides funding for states to administer grant programs aimed at coming up with long-term hazard mitigation measures.
Both Wheeler and Marshall said that some of the areas hit by the flooding in early August involved infrastructure that was also damaged by Tropical Storm Fred in 2021.
But the two Steuben County officials noted that the federal disaster designation only covers government infrastructure. It does not provide grants to individual homeowners, but the local officials said there are some state programs that can help address those costs.
“We certainly advocated strongly for it, (federal grants for individual homeowners) but that was not made available," said Wheeler. "But we’re grateful that the state has rolled up a new program and is about to kick off the announcements and the applications for individuals that sustained property damage.”
Soon after the storms hit last month, Gov. Hochul did announce grants of up to $50,000 to be available to eligible homeowners in several counties including Steuben to address health and safety-related repairs not covered by insurance or other disaster relief programs.
