STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Gov. Kathy Hochul has formally appealed the federal government\u2019s denial of disaster relief for a February blizzard that caused more than $168 million in damages across New York, asking President Donald Trump to reverse the decision and provide federal funding for recovery efforts.<\/p>\n
The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied New York\u2019s request for a major disaster declaration on July 2, for the Feb. 22-23 severe winter storm without providing a detailed explanation. <\/p>\n
In a letter to the president, Hochul argued the decision was unsupported and inconsistent with FEMA\u2019s own standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the February blizzard causing unprecedented damage across our state, far exceeding FEMA\u2019s own criteria for federal assistance, New York was denied the support our communities need to rebuild,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cI am calling on President Trump to reverse this decision and ensure local governments have the funding necessary to recover and better prepare for future disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The damages identified by state and local governments exceed FEMA\u2019s threshold of $39.2 million by more than four times. FEMA\u2019s own damage assessment teams validated $79.03 million in damages, more than double the threshold, but stopped the validation process before reviewing all submitted damage surveys, state officials said. At the time validation stopped, 143 surveys had been completed but another 210 were pending review.<\/p>\n
According to the governor, the blizzard produced sustained winds of 40 to 50 mph with gusts reaching 84 mph. The Long Island Power Authority sustained more than $20 million in damages from trees falling on power lines.<\/p>\n
Five people died as a result of the storm, and more than 40,000 households lost power.<\/p>\n
The storm forced the closure of 175 school districts, including New York City public schools, and caused hundreds of flight cancellations at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and other regional airports. Mass transit service in multiple cities was also disrupted.<\/p>\n
In her letter, Hochul noted that the affected region had experienced another significant snowstorm less than one month before the February blizzard, straining municipal budgets and emergency response capabilities.<\/p>\n
FEMA\u2019s denial letter stated that \u201csupplemental federal assistance under the Stafford Act is not warranted\u201d but did not elaborate on what information was reviewed or why it was insufficient. Hochul described the decision as arbitrary in her appeal.<\/p>\n
The governor pointed out that several counties met snow record indicators, including Staten Island, which set records for snowfall. Bronx, Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, Kings and Westchester counties were also severely affected. <\/p>\n
New York has declared 32 winter storm emergencies in the past 15 years but has requested a major disaster declaration for snowstorms only four times, demonstrating the state seeks federal assistance only when events exceed state and local government capabilities, according to the letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Gov. Kathy Hochul has formally appealed the federal government\u2019s denial of disaster relief for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-311666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}