Gov. Phil Scott Saturday July 13 updated his Emergency Declaration after last week’s flooding to include “temporary regulatory relief” to expedite the work of repair and recovery, according to a press statement.

“This addendum to our existing State of Emergency will temporarily waive certain requirements to expedite response and recovery,” said Gov. Scott. “With so much infrastructure damage, this is critical for towns and Vermonters to access the tools needed to move forward with repairs to roads, bridges, homes and businesses.”

Under authority provided by the state of emergency, the Governor is providing specific, temporary regulatory relief critical to the immediate response and recovery work, including for:

• professional service licensing flexibility;
• timely access to gravel and rock fill, asphalt and concrete for road and infrastructure repair;
• facilitating commercial motor vehicle operations needed to support emergency relief efforts transporting supplies, goods, materials, equipment, and fuel into Vermont;
• timely removal of flood related debris.

Scott will consider additional regulatory relief and action in response to ongoing damage assessments and recovery efforts to ensure an expedited response.

Guv takes first steps towards federal disaster relief – Also on July 13, the State of Vermont submitted a request for a Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine whether the state qualifies for a federal major disaster declaration for flooding and resulting damage on July 10 and 11, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott said. The request requests assessments for both Public Assistance (PA) and Individual Assistance (IA) declarations.

A PA disaster declaration provides 75 percent reimbursement to communities for responding to and repairing public infrastructure damaged by the storm. Assessments will be done in Addison, Orleans, Washington, Caledonia, Chittenden, Lamoille, Orange, and Essex counties. An assessment by the state suggests damages to public infrastructure resulting from the storm to be more than $15 million. 

To qualify for a major disaster declaration, FEMA must verify at least $1.183 million in response and public infrastructure recovery costs. Individual counties must also show damages of $4.60 per capita to qualify.

An IA declaration would provide some financial assistance to homeowners and renters for property losses in the storm. To reach the threshold for an IA disaster, residents need to report damage to 211 by dialing 2-1-1 or visiting www.vermont211.org. Even if you have minimal damage, please report it to 211 to give the state an accurate picture of damages.