Obama declares Hurricane Irene a federal disaster to release repair money

Scale of the wreckage puts strain on resources as 2011 is set to be the most expensive year for disaster damage in US history Barack Obama has declared Hurricane Irene a “major federal disaster” in states across the eastern US, freeing relief funds for what is likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in American history. Obama acted as people struggled with severe flooding in states along the east coast from North Carolina going north. The designation means government money can be used for temporary housing and home repairs. The president earlier signed emergency declarations for other states including Puerto Rico and Vermont, where heavy flooding has destroyed roads and left 13 towns surrounded by water. New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, called on the president to designate his heavily flooded state a disaster funds recipient. Thousands of people were evacuated in cities along the Passaic river, which has flooded towns along its banks. “I saw just extraordinary despair,” Christie said after visiting some affected areas. The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is visiting the state to survey the damage. The scale of the disaster is putting intense pressure on the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and has led to a political row about whether the agency will have enough money to deal with Irene’s aftermath. Fema’s disaster relief fund has less than $800m (£490m) left and could run out before the end of the current fiscal year on 30 September. Eric Cantor, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, is pressing for budget cuts to cover the cost of cleaning up after Irene and other disasters, while Democrats argue that aid should not be delayed by political bickering. About 40 people are now believed to have been killed by the storm, which also caused damage to property estimated at more than $10bn and forced a shutdown of New York city. Insurance experts are still calculating the likely bill but Irene looks set to be one of the most costly disasters to hit the US. The most expensive disaster in US history was Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,836 people and caused $45bn in insured damages in 2005, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). The second most costly – at $23bn – were the 9/11 attacks, which the institute counts as a single event. Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida and Louisiana in 1992, is the third most costly at $22bn. On current estimates, Irene would rank seventh. Even before Irene, 2011 has already been one of the most costly disaster seasons in history. According to the institute, there were 43 “severe thunderstorms” in the first half of the year, causing 593 deaths and damage in excess of $23.5bn. AM Best in New Jersey, which rates the financial strength of insurers, calculates insurance losses topped $27bn in the first half of the year and have already exceeded the total for all of 2010. Jeff Mango of AM Best said 2011 was shaping up to be a year of record losses from storm damages. He said damage from tornadoes and hail in the midwest and storms in the north-east had taken a heavy toll in the first half of the year. Massive tornadoes in Alabama left almost 300 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage earlier this year. Mango said it was the increased frequency of events rather than their scale that was leading to record damages. “It’s hard to say yet what Irene will cost. It’s more of a flooding event and a lot of it is uninsured risk, unfortunately,” he said. US household insurance does not usually include flood damage. September is typically the biggest month for hurricanes, and forecasters have predicted an above-average hurricane season this year. “This could potentially be a record year,” Mango said. Hurricane Irene United States Natural disasters and extreme weather North and Central America US domestic policy United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 31, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.