Recovery

A spokesman for the governor said he already contacted FEMA about a potential disaster declaration and was told the derailment wouldn’t qualify because there’s a lack of unreimbursed property damage.

Randall Bell, who recently published a book on disaster recovery, says communities and individuals must first acknowledge the pain and then begin the long, difficult process of recovery.

To date, 60 homes have been purchased and demolished between the county's six federally funded programs through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

To be sure, the emergency powers yielded some positive outcomes, including making it easier for out-of-state health workers to work in California and waiving licensing requirements so pharmacists and pharmacy technicians could administer COVID vaccines.

Beginning Saturday, Feb. 4, both centers will continue operating between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to help those impacted by the January atmospheric river event. Eligible residents who have not yet begun the recovery process are encouraged to stop by.

Oklahomans affected by the ice/winter storm need to: Survey your property, photograph and document any damage. Make necessary repairs to prevent further damage quickly.

Firefighters initially responded to a call about 8 a.m. regarding a vehicle in the San Marcos Creek crossing. A mother and her 5-year-old son were trying to cross a road that had been flooded.

Services have been relocated in accordance with the agency’s disaster plan, and the new locations can accommodate all the patients who were previously visiting this central location.

If you live in an evacuation zone, will you be able to stay with friends or family nearby who don’t — or, will you plan to go to a shelter? If you’re not in an evacuation zone, do you have a room for others to stay in?

Working with FEMA and other state agencies following the flood, many families opted to either remain in their damaged homes or move into mobile homes temporarily during the warm, summer months.

As a Category 1 storm at its strongest, Nicole did not exactly break records for wind ferocity or storm surge height, but it came on the heels of devastating Category 4 Hurricane Ian a mere six weeks earlier.

The CDC switched up the contractors who run the national program for some 25,000 responders and survivors outside of the New York area and the prescription drug benefits for the entire program.

Survivors of natural disasters — especially the hurricanes that have hit the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico the past two decades — report years of neglect, chaos and mismanagement of emergency response.

In Osceola, at the Heart Memorial Library, the county’s disaster recovery center, a steady stream of residents seeking assistance after the hurricane walked in and out of the building.

Deborah Beidel, a psychologist and University of Central Florida psychology professor, said those who found their homes uninhabitable after the storm may experience trauma responses to cope with the losses.

Landing at the Southwest Florida Regional Airport, Biden will be joined by First Lady Jill Biden and officials with FEMA who plan to board a helicopter and fly over heavily hit areas.

Final tallies aren’t in yet, but it’s clear Ian brought historic levels of storm surge from Key West to Naples to Fort Myers, Fla., with some spots seeing at least seven feet of water above dry land.

The independent commission's report examined how FEMA's response efforts differed between Harvey, which killed at least 68 people in Texas, and Maria, which killed 2,975 in Puerto Rico. The response in Texas was on a "larger scale" and faster than in Puerto Rico.