President Trump has declared that Maine is eligible for federal disaster relief to help pay for the damage caused by a late October windstorm that knocked out power to tens of thousands of Mainers for the better part of a week.
The White House issued a statement Tuesday night stating that federal funding will be provided to the state as well as certain nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis to pay for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the storm in 13 counties. There was no mention in the release of how much federal aid Maine will receive.
In a Nov. 30 news release, Gov. Paul LePage stated he was seeking a presidential disaster declaration for federal assistance to repair $4.7 million in public infrastructure damage caused the by the storm that hit Maine with high winds, rain and flooding from Oct. 29 through Nov. 1.
“The falling trees pulled down wires, snapped more than 1,400 poles, and left many roads impassable causing widespread power outages greater than those of the 1998 ice storm,” LePage said in the statement. “Several communities spent days clearing debris that created life-safety issues from public rights of way. The cost for that cleanup work will be considerable and will cut deeply into public works budgets.”
In Maine, the winds caused more than 429,000 customers to lose power by noon on Oct. 31. More than 550,000 customers or 1.2 million Mainers lost power at some point during the outage, which in some cases lasted more than a week.
The storm forced the closure of more than 60 roads and the closure of 91 school districts, the governor’s office said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
