Recent severe weather events prompt new FEMA damage assessments

Government agencies still regrouping from the Great Flood of 2013 began a new round of damage assessments this week in the wake of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, flooding, landslides and mudslides that hit parts of the state between May 4 and June 16.

The Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency began preliminary damage assessments in Boulder County on Wednesday. Others were scheduled to begin in Park County on Wednesday, in Arapahoe and Denver counties on Thursday, and in Adams County next Tuesday.

The assessment teams are comprised of federal, state and local emergency management officials. Their findings will be provided to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office for review. The assessments are not a guarantee of a federal disaster declaration for these counties, but will be used by the governor to determine if the damages warrant their addition to a major-disaster declaration issued July 16 by President Obama.

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Obama’s declaration designated El Paso, Fremont, Logan, Morgan, Pueblo, Saguache, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma counties as disaster areas, making state, county and local governments, as well as certain nonprofit organizations, eligible to receive reimbursement for repairing infrastructure damage caused by the storms, as well as the cost of responding to them.