After months of seemingly endless rain, and following unanticipated downpours in Leominster and elsewhere last week and with a Hurricane staring down the region, the Biden Administration has declared that a state of emergency exists in Massachusetts.
Gov. Maura Healey, on Monday, announced she would declare a state of emergency existed statewide after she toured rain damaged parts of the Commonwealth. Healey explained the declaration would allow federal funds to be freed up for disaster response. Over the weekend, Biden’s team announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would intervene in the Bay State.
“The President’s action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe,” the agency said in a release.
Assistance will be made available for all 14 Massachusetts counties, according to FEMA.
After a storm parked itself over Leominster for hours Monday evening and drenched the small city in almost a foot of rain, Healey said an emergency declaration would “expedite our efforts to deliver relief to impacted communities and bolster our ability to access federal resources.”
Three days later, the governor would activate 50 members of the Massachusetts National Guard and declare a second state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Lee’s potential impacts. In doing so, Healey requested FEME issue a Pre-Disaster Emergency Declaration.
“I am declaring a state of emergency ahead of anticipated impacts from Hurricane Lee to ensure that the state can mobilize quickly to respond. I am also calling on FEMA to issue a Stafford Act declaration to free up resources that we can use to help communities with any recovery that might be necessary,” Healey said.
Over the weekend, after it became clear that Hurricane Lee had been downgraded to a tropical storm which would pass by the Bay State, Healey declared that the state of emergency had passed.
“We’re relieved that the impacts of Hurricane Lee have been minimal across Massachusetts and grateful for the public safety officials who have been responding to and preparing for severe weather and flooding throughout the week. Flooding devastated several of our communities this week and we will continue to support them as they move into the recovery phase. We thank the people of Massachusetts for their preparation and resiliency,” Healey said in a statement.
FEMA’s declaration will authorize the agency to “identify, mobilize and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, under the public assistance program will be provided at 75% federal funding.”
E. Craig Levy, Sr., a FEMA employee, was tapped to be the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in Massachusetts. Levy served in the same capacity in Pennsylvania in 2021 following Hurricane Ida.
