Oregon Public Broadcasting

Officials in Oregon and Washington are applauding President Obama’s declaration that more than 40 Northwest counties are eligible for federal emergency money.

The declarations will help reimburse and repair the counties for costs related to December snow. Storms late last year snarled traffic and canceled events from Salem to Bellingham, and east into the Columbia River Gorge.

Oregon’s tab is about $10 million, mostly for personnel costs. Jay Wilson is an emergency official in Clackamas County, where damages totaled $1.6 million.

Jay Wilson: “The federal assistance is coming in to help reimburse a lot of the city and county governments for all the overtime that they had to spend on people who were clearing snow and providing emergency assistance. And then to pay for some basic repairs to public infrastructure from the snow damage.”

For Clackamas County, it was a case of ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try again.’

Clackamas tried to get federal money for a more recent, and more expensive, storm. But because Clackamas was the only Oregon county to apply, its $2.5 million in flood damages in January weren’t sufficient to get federal help.