Additional resources have already been called in to assist with winter storm recovery efforts especially with all the downed trees and debris.
After boarding a StarFlight helicopter, Travis County judge Andy Brown got a birdseye view of the winter storm damage. "Based on what we saw today and our discussions with our emergency response staff I intend to declare a disaster declaration today in Travis County," says Travis County Judge Andy Brown
"Under FEMA public assistance program the threshold is for accessing funds for Travis County is 5.7 million dollars. If that threshold is met, FEMA will reimburse 75 percent overall expenses which includes the cost of debris removal and protective measures and any damage the county owned facilities or obviously in the city's case the same for the city," says Judge Brown.A disaster declaration has been issued for Travis County following the winter storm.
"One of the reasons why we are doing it now is because frankly you need to get through some of this, so you can actually assess the level of damage," says Mayor Watson.More than 120K people in Austin remain without power as of 9 a.m. Austin Energy says it cannot provide an estimate of how long it will take to restore power.
Mayor Watson says after watching the series of events that happened this week, the city will now look at ways to improve their storm response and be prepared for storms like this.
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