Texas and FEMA Begin Joint Recovery Efforts

A team of emergency management experts from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are working side by side, following a presidential disaster declaration, to help eligible state and local government entities, and certain nonprofit organizations receive federal aid for their eligible wildfire costs.


The federal disaster declaration, announced on July 1, triggered FEMA's Public Assistance (PA) program for 45 Texas counties. Applicants in these counties are now eligible to receive reimbursement funding for Emergency Protective Measures that supported firefighting activities for wildfires that occurred between April 6 and May 3, 2011.


"Together we will work to ensure state agencies, local jurisdictions and eligible nonprofit groups are reimbursed for their firefighting efforts," said State Coordinating Officer Shari Ramirez-MacKay. "This assistance will help as our communities continue to recover from these historic fires."


"The FEMA team is on the ground in Austin and will remain in Texas working with our state and local partners until recovery efforts are complete," said FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin L. Hannes. "We will also be visiting the declared counties as quickly as possible to explain the funding program and assist in the reimbursement process."


The 45 eligible counties include Andrews, Archer, Armstrong, Bailey, Baylor, Brewster, Callahan, Carson, Castro, Clay, Coleman, Concho, Cottle, Crockett, Dawson, Duval, Eastland, Garza, Glasscock, Hall, Hemphill, Hockley, Irion, Kent, King, Lynn, Martin, Mason, Mitchell, Moore, Motley, Pecos, Presidio, Scurry, Stephens, Sterling, Sutton, Terrell, Terry, Throckmorton, Tom Green, Trinity, Tyler, Val Verde, and Young. FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of eligible wildfire costs.


FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.