Oregon Public Broadcasting

Federal, state, and local emergency response teams are fanning out across Western Washington  to document the damage from last week’s flooding. 

The tally of uninsured losses needs to be large and widespread before the federal government opens the spigot for disaster relief.  Correspondent Tom Banse has more.

It’s virtually certain that Governor Chris Gregoire will ask the president to declare a federal disaster in Washington State.  That would allow the state to be reimbursed for repairs to public facilities that were damaged during last week’s floods.

Individual homeowners, renters, and businesses might also qualify for cash or low interest loans.  Still uncertain is whether to lump in property damage and overtime costs due to the preceding snowstorms.

State emergency management spokesman Rob Harper says there’s another uncertainty: which president to plead the case to.

Rob Harper: “I’ve heard some speculation that we might do better with the new administration.  Then there’s some thought that no, we should get it going forward as quickly as possible and just let it go.  That’s kind of where we’re going.”

Harper says the Nisqually earthquake in 2001 was the first disaster declaration President Bush got to make.  So it’d be ironic if another Washington calamity accounted for his last or gave President Obama his first taste of disaster response.