State of Emergency for Ice Storm Concludes

NASHVILLE  – The state of emergency declared on January 28, 2009, officially concludes today, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, a damaging winter storm caused extensive damages to power utility lines and knocked out power in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas for several weeks in some cases. As a result, the counties of Dyer, Henry, Lake, Obion, Montgomery, Stewart and Weakley in Tennessee received federal disaster declarations to assist with recovery costs.

"Recovery is an on-going process and we are still working with local governments and utilities on federal reimbursement for their emergency activities," said James Bassham, Director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. “However, we have reached a point where operations have returned to a normal level of activity.”

Under state law (T.C.A. 58-2-107), a state of emergency exists until the conditions that caused the emergency no longer exist, which is typically evidenced by TEMA returning to normal monitoring operations. No state of emergency can last longer than 60 days from the date from the initial declaration of emergency, unless renewed by a written declaration from the Governor.

Earlier preliminary damage assessments conducted by federal, state and local emergency management estimated that more than $11 million in storm-related damages and emergency response costs had been incurred by those seven counties. To date, FEMA has obligated more than $275,865 to reimburse local governments in Dyer, Henry, Lake, Obion, Montgomery, Stewart and Weakley counties, public utilities and other entities under the federal public assistance program.

A previously stated, there were not enough uninsured damages to qualify for assistance under the federal Individual Assistance program to households and small businesses.

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