President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration that will help two Massachusetts communities affected by last year's storm that caused severe flash flooding — reversing the Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision in February.
The storm impacted residents in Bristol and Worcester counties from Sept. 11 to Sept. 13, 2023. The severe flash flooding trapped people in their cars, left behind buckled roads and even washed away train tracks.
The city of Leominster was hit particularly hard.
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Mayor Dean Mazzarella said the city is thrilled with Biden's decision because residents and businesses are still recovering from the disaster.
"This is really good news," Mazzarella said during a press conference Thursday. "As you know, we were denied and the governor's office...filed an appeal. I can't find too many times when an appeal was reversed, so that's exciting in and of itself."
So far, he said about 1,400 claims have been filed with FEMA.
"Each one will be looked at individually, and there will be a communication back-and-forth directly from FEMA with those businesses and residents," said Mazzarella.
Mazzarella said on the city side, the storm caused $30 million of worth of damage.
"We actually hired engineers. We didn't want to just put ballpark figures together to submit to FEMA," he said. "We actually went out and hire several different engineering companies to give us real, accurate costs — estimates as to what some of these projects would cost to rebuild on the city side."
He said the city will meet with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to "go over what's next."
In March, Gov. Maura Healey appealed FEMA's denial of her request for a major disaster declaration for the Commonwealth after the historic September rainfall.
"Our communities have been through so much and continue to experience the impacts of these storms," Healey said Thursday in a release. "I thank President Biden and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for recognizing the scope of the impacts this extreme weather event had on many of our cities and towns in Massachusetts."
The federal assistance includes grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property loss and other programs to help residents and businesses recover from the effects of the flooding, Biden said.
Residents in those two counties can begin applying for assistance at disasterassistance.gov or by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362).
