FEMA: President Donald J. Trump Signs Emergency Declaration for Oklahoma

WASHINGTON, May 25 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the following news release:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's FEMA announced that federal emergency aid has been made available to the state of Oklahoma to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the emergency conditions in the area affected by flooding beginning on May 7, 2019 and continuing.

The President's action authorizes 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.

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 (Category B), including direct federal assistance under the Public Assistance program, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding. This assistance will be provided in Haskell, Kay, Le Flore, Muskogee, Noble, Osage, Pawnee, Sequoyah, Tulsa, and Wagoner counties.

Gerard M. Stolar has been named as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal response operations in the affected area. Stolar said that additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.