President Declares Disaster for West Virginia

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal emergency aid has been made available to the state of West Virginia to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from severe storms beginning on June 29, 2012, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 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 all 55 counties in the State of West Virginia.

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.

Donald L. Keldsen has been named as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area. 

Follow FEMA online at blog.fema.gov [1], www.twitter.com/fema [2], www.facebook.com/fema [3], and www.youtube.com/fema [4].  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate's activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema [5].

The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications. 

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.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=63656 [6]