CHARLESTON (AP) — The federal government has
denied assistance for residents in six West Virginia counties hit by
Superstorm Sandy, a spokeswoman for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Thursday.
Tomblin
had sought individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management
Agency for residents of Fayette, Nicholas, Preston, Randolph, Tucker and
Webster counties.
The October storm dumped more than 2 feet of
snow in parts of the state, left seven people dead and knocked out
electricity to more than a quarter-million customers, some for two
weeks.
A few days after the storm, Black Hawk helicopters were
sent up over some mountainous areas to get a better sense of how many
people were cut off from the outside world by fallen trees, downed power
lines and heavy snow.
But based on preliminary assessments done
by the state, damage to homes in the six counties "is not of the
severity and magnitude as to warrant the implementation of the
Individual Assistance program," Elizabeth A. Zimmerman, deputy associate
administrator of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, said in a
letter to Tomblin.
The state has 30 days to appeal. Tomblin
spokeswoman Amy Shuler Goodwin said Thursday that state officials plan
to appeal and have been gathering additional materials for FEMA.
Last
month President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration to help
local governments and certain nonprofit groups in 18 counties recover
from Sandy-related damage.
In the letter to Tomblin, Zimmerman
said FEMA denied public assistance for infrastructure damage in Grant,
Greenbrier and Summers counties.
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