President Joe Biden approved Maine’s request for a federal disaster declaration on Tuesday, a move that follows the severe storms and flooding of December 17-21.
[RELATED: FEMA Will Begin Assessing Maine Storm Damage Following Mills’ Tardy Request for Federal Aid…]
“President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Maine and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe storm and flooding from December 17 to December 21, 2023,” said the White House press release.
In December 2023, a severe storm struck the majority of Maine, with strong winds and heavy rain.
The storm left over half of Maine households, over 400,000, without power, in outages that lasted for days as temperatures dropped.
The December 18 storm also led to significant flooding throughout the state, which caused severe property damage to Maine businesses, homes, and infrastructure.
Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) failed to acknowledge the storm, or take any action, for over 36 hours after the start of the widespread power outages.
While Mainers suffered without any state aid or statement from the governor, Mills’ press secretary, Ben Goodman, was posting about Cadbury Cream Eggs on X.
After significant delays, Mills finally requested a federal disaster declaration, which allows Maine to receive federal funding to relieve the state’s financial burden in repairing damages.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began assessing damages in order to determine Maine’s eligibility for federal aid in late December.
Now, over a month after FEMA began assessing damages, and even longer after Mainers began suffering from the storm, President Biden finally approved Maine’s request, and declared a federal emergency.
Following the declaration, individuals effected, emergency relief non-profits, and town governments can access federal aid in their attempts to recover from the severe damages.
Currently, only Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec, Oxford, and Somerset counties are eligible to receive the aid.
Damage assessments are continuing, and, depending on their findings, more counties may be added to list.
The federal and state response to the December storm was far different from the response to the far less destructive Hurricane Lee which struck Maine in September.
Before that storm struck, Mills declared a state of emergency, and requested a preemptive federal disaster declaration, which was then granted by the Biden administration.
Mills attempted to defend her delay in declaring an emergency and requesting federal aid for December’s storm with claims that she was unaware of the storm before it struck.
However, the National Weather Service proved those claims false when it announced that it had discussed the coming storm with state and local government on multiple occasions before it struck.
[RELATED: National Weather Service Strongly Suggests Janet Mills Lied About Storm Warnings…]
It is unclear why the Biden Administration, which was quick to declare a preemptive state of emergency before the much weaker Hurricane Lee, took over a month to issue a federal disaster declaration for the storm that ravaged Maine in December.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25084 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25084">1 Comment
janet mills is so fugly. As a hard core marxist on the lam my one and only wish is that we had a hot governor like they do in that Dakota state and that everyone would stop ridiculing me.