Biden has expedited the declaration of major disaster to send aid from the federal government
Half a thousand landslides, destroyed bridges and flooding in 40 of the state’s 58 counties. The blow that nature has dealt California in three weeks of rain has been so severe that initial damage estimates are as high as $1 billion.
Government emergency services spokesman Brian Ferguson clarified that the assessment that just started on Saturday is likely to shift higher. The good news is that the president, Joe Biden, has ordered the expedited declaration of a major disaster, which will allow the federal government to reimburse local and state authorities for up to 75% of the costs needed to restore infrastructure. In the most damaged areas, local governments could only pay up to 8.5%.
The storms that followed a major drought started after Christmas and continued into last week. They flooded rivers, forced the evacuation of entire communities and killed at least 20 people. Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Benito are some of the hardest hit counties. Some sections of the famous Highway 1 that runs through Big Sur are still blocked and there are bridges that will be inaccessible for several more weeks. Harder will be the damage to agriculture, “severely affected”, which has destroyed between 25,000 and 35,000 hectares of farmland in Monterrey alone.
Source: La Verdad
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