Additional Virginia Counties and Independent Cities Approved For Disaster Aid

Harrisburg, Pa. – The counties of Greene, Henrico, and Shenandoah and the independent cities of Fairfax and Fredericksburg are now eligible to receive federal assistance for some of their costs incurred during the Severe Winter Storms and Snowstorm occurring on January 22-23, 2016. This will allow for reimbursement for repairing infrastructure damage caused by the storms, as well as the cost of responding to them. In addition, Snow Assistance will be provided for a period of 48 hours.

On March 7, 2016 President Obama issued a major disaster declaration for the Commonwealth of Virginia triggering the release of Federal funds to help communities recover from the Severe Winter Storm and Snowstorm. The disaster declaration authorized Public Assistance for Albemarle, Arlington, Caroline, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Highland, King George, Loudoun, Louisa, Madison, Page, Patrick, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Manassas, Manassas Park, and Winchester.

In addition, the following counties were designated for Snow Assistance; Albemarle, Arlington, Caroline, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Highland, King George, Loudoun, Louisa, Madison, Page, Patrick, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Manassas, Manassas Park and Winchester.

FEMA’s Public Assistance Programs provide state and local governments and eligible private non-profit organizations, in the twenty-three designated counties and seven designated independent cities, with federal funds to pay 75 percent of the approved cost of the following; debris removal, emergency services related to the disaster, snow assistance for snow removal, de-icing, salting, snow dumps and sanding of roads and other eligible facilities, and for repairing or replacing damaged public facilities such as roads, bridges, buildings and utilities.

The Commonwealth, which distributes the FEMA funds to local governments and qualified non-profits, must review Public Assistance projects, along with FEMA, to ensure compliance with regulations.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. FEMA Region III’s jurisdiction includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.  Stay informed of FEMA’s activities online: videos and podcasts are available at fema.gov/medialibrary and youtube.com/fema. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/femaregion3.

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