Bredesen asks Obama to declare RuCo a disaster area on The Murfreesboro Post

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Bredesen asks Obama to declare RuCo a disaster area

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Posted: Friday, May 1, 2009 1:40 pm

Gov. Phil Bredesen has asked President Obama to declare Rutherford, McMinn, Sequatchie and Benton Counties as federal disaster areas following the severe weather, high-winds and tornadoes that struck those counties on April 10.

Should this request for public assistance be granted, the federal program will help covers emergency response and recovery costs incurred by state and local governments.

"The cost of response and cleanup efforts for a large disaster can be a tremendous financial burden for the impacted counties," said Bredesen. "Federal assistance to them and their local governments will lessen the severity of that impact in these times of tight budgets."

The storm, which resulted in two deaths in Rutherford County, caused damage in all four counties to public and private structures, significant loss of power, road damage, downed power lines and wide-spread debris that made roads impassable.

The federal Public Assistance Program authorizes a number of benefits for state and local governments and public utilities to reclaim expenses relating to debris removal, overtime and property damages for civic buildings.

Local and state agencies expended considerable resources responding to the emergency, restoring public infrastructure and removing debris. The federal program will provide reimbursement for 75 percent of the eligible costs incurred by local or state government. Utilities are also eligible for 75 percent reimbursement, but must pay the matching 25 percent themselves.

In response to an earlier request by Governor Bredesen, the Small Business Administration activated its SBA Disaster Loan program to provide help to households and private businesses in Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, Davidson, Marshall, Rutherford, Williamson and Wilson Counties.

In cases where government assistance programs are not an option, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency continues to assist county emergency management where possible to match individual needs with non-governmental programs, such as those offered by members of the Tennessee Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters.

Additional information about state and federal assistance for affected counties will be released as details become available.

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Member Opinions:

By: devolver on 5/1/09
I thought that it was already declared a federal disaster area...

By: mikewest on 5/1/09
Nope, just by the SBA.

By: devolver on 5/1/09
What is the SBA?

By: lelalib on 5/1/09
Small Business Administration (SBA). If you read the 2nd to last paragraph it states that Bredesen asked (and got) the SBA to activate it's SBA Disaster Loan program.

My question is why it has taken 3 weeks to request that it be declared a disaster area.

By: diddlede on 5/1/09
SBA stands for "Small Business Association".

By: devolver on 5/2/09
k, got it. I should have read the article, just skimmed over it.

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