Texas Governor Expands Disaster Declaration
With the continued onslaught of severe weather and rising lakes and streams in the state, the Texas Governor expands the state disaster declaration to 46 counties in the state.
Texas has been experiencing one of the wettest–and most turbulent ones as far as severe weather goes–months since the 1980’s. All the severe weather does come with consequences however. The biggest step in the process of getting any outside aid to an area (especially from the federal level) is a disaster declaration from the State.
State Disaster Declaration Effects:
The State of Texas is limited to providing only in-kind assistance from individual agencies to counties and municipalities encompassed by a disaster declaration. A state disaster declaration comes after the request of a county and municipal emergency managers (County Judge and Mayor respectively). A state disaster declaration does allow for: (i) additional liability protection to government agencies and special/volunteer emergency workers, (ii) implementation of economic stabilization measures (e.g. wage, rent and price controls), (iii) curfews, (iv) access control, (v) implementation of curfews, and (vi) suspension of select codes and ordinances. These measures are only implemented to support response and recovery from a disaster or emergency condition. (i.e. if curfew is not needed, it would not be used).
Federal Disaster Declaration Effects:
The Federal Government is able to provide both in-kind and financial assistance to counties and municipalities encompassed by a disaster declaration. A federal disaster declaration is made by the President of the United States after request by the governor of a state. Federal disaster assistance comes in two forms: (1) Individual/Household Assistance and (2) Public Assistance. Individual/Household Assistance comes in the form of uninsured: medical care and evacuation, emergency shelters, food and clothing, mortgage and rent assistance, job placement, property cleanup and counseling. Public Assistance comes in one of seven different varieties aimed at supplementing available resources and help prevent conditions from developing which a community would not be able to reasonably recover.
Read the Governor’s Declaration here.
The current list of counties is:
- Archer
- Bastrop
- Blanco
- Bosque
- Bowie
- Caldwell
- Cass
- Clay
- Collin
- Comal
- Cooke
- Denton
- Dewitt
- Eastland
- Fannin
- Gaines
- Garza
- Grayson
- Grimes
- Guadalupe
- Harris
- Harrison
- Hays
- Henderson
- Hidalgo
- Hill
- Hood
- Houston
- Jasper
- Johnson
- Kendall
- Montague
- Navarro
- Newton
- Nueces
- Parker
- Red River
- San Jacinto
- Smith
- Van Zandt
- Walker
- Wichita
- Williamson
- Wilson
- Wise
- Zavala