Representatives urge Trump to issue disaster declaration

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (NY)

July 18--U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, joined four other upstate New York lawmakers in an effort to push President Trump to issue a disaster declaration in Lake Ontario's high water levels.

In the July 12 letter to Trump, the lawmakers, all of whom represent districts that border the lake or St. Lawrence River, point out the lake is at its highest level since record-keeping began over a century ago.

The disaster declaration could open affected communities and individuals to millions in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.

"It has caused irreparable damage to shoreline properties and placed a significant burden on local municipalities," write the lawmakers, including Reps. Louise M. Slaughter, John Katko, Claudia Tenney and Elise M. Stefanik. "Damage to homes and small business has been extensive and in many cases irreversible."

Federal law requires that to be eligible for FEMA aid, the governor must first request the declaration, and damages must exceed a per-capita amount.

Cuomo issued that request on July 6 during a visit to Wilson to sign a bill providing $45 million in flood relief aid.

"We are going to pursue that aggressively," Cuomo said at the time. "I believe this is a federal responsibility. We pay federal taxes and they should pay."

A FEMA spokesman said the population-based threshold for the state is $27.7 million. However, FEMA also considers other factors in a disaster, including the amount of insurance, the size of the affected area and the number of buildings damaged.

According to separate estimates provided by Niagara County and New York State, the damages are likely far above that threshold.

In the letter, the lawmakers note that high water levels have damaged roads and bridges, overwhelmed wastewater treatment facilities, destroyed breakwaters and bulkheads and hurt coastal communities' tourism-based economies. They add that Cuomo has deemed the damage too great for the state to address on its own.

"Having seen the extent of the damage firsthand, we agree and respectfully urge you to grant New York's request for a major disaster declaration as expeditiously as possible," the lawmakers wrote.

In conjunction with the letter, in a joint statement by the Republican signatories only, Collins asked for federal assistance in addressing a problem that he blamed on President Obama and the International Joint Commission's controversial Plan 2014.

"I've seen firsthand the devastation that this flooding has brought to shoreline property owners, businesses and municipalities," Collins said. "Now that the declaration has been requested, it is time that the federal government take this first step towards righting this terrible wrong by providing disaster relief."

Slaughter, the sole Democrat to sign onto the letter, has said the evidence does not support arguments that Plan 2014 -- rather than this year's rainy weather conditions --caused the high water.

"Anyone who blames current conditions on the new plan is playing politics," Slaughter said previously. "The Army Corps and IJC have been clear that there would have been similar flows under the old plan and that under the new plan water levels are possibly an inch lower."

Those affected by the high lake levels are unlikely to see relief anytime soon. The U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers' July 14 update on Great Lakes water levels predicted a mere eight-inch drop by Aug. 14. That same update pegged current water levels at 30 inches above average water levels for this time of the year, and two inches above the highest level recorded in July.

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