Deal: President Obama signs Georgia emergency declaration
Gov. Nathan Deal announced today that President Obama has declared an emergency in the state of Georgia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a severe winter storm beginning on Feb. 10 and continuing.
“On behalf of Georgians, I appreciate the president’s quick response to my request. I asked last night for federal assistance in this storm response,” Deal said. “My primary request to the president was for generators in the case of power outages. The federal declaration makes those available, but it also allows us to ask for other supplies, such as food, blankets and commodities, as needs develop.”
The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Cobb, Dade, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Elbert, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Gordon, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Haralson, Hart, Jackson, Lincoln, Lumpkin, Madison, Murray, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, Walker, Walton, White, Whitfield and Wilkes.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security, named W. Michael Moore as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area.
