Sherrill Asks Trump for Disaster Declaration After Nor'easter Left About $27m in Damage in Cape May, Monmouth and Atlantic Counties
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What happened
Where it happened
- Cape May, Monmouth, Atlantic County.
The September nor'easter is long gone from the Jersey Shore. The repair bill is still sitting there, and Trenton now wants Washington to help pay it.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill has asked President Donald Trump for a major disaster declaration covering Cape May, Monmouth and Atlantic counties, her office announced Tuesday, Oct. 27. The request went out in a letter dated Oct. 26.
FEMA-validated preliminary damage assessments put Cape May County at $13,779,935, Monmouth County at $8,469,403 and Atlantic County at $4,726,699, the governor's office said. Combined, that comes to roughly $27 million. All three counties far exceeded FEMA's per-capita damage indicator, from nearly three times the threshold in Monmouth County to 30 times in Cape May County, the governor's office said.
Local officials had been asking for federal help. In mid-October, Cape May County commissioners passed a resolution urging Sherrill to formally ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for help repairing beach and dune damage. In a separate request the week before this one, the Sherrill administration sought federal help under Public Law 84-99 to repair eligible Army Corps projects damaged by the storm. The new FEMA request covers damaged stretches of coastline that are not under the Army Corps' authority, the governor's office said.
If approved, the declaration would unlock FEMA Public Assistance, which reimburses eligible storm-related costs, along with Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money for projects that help communities hold up better in future storms. Sherrill said the state is working to make sure coastal communities have what they need to recover. She pointed out that New Jersey sends far more in federal taxes than it gets back and thanked state and local emergency officials for finishing the damage assessments quickly.
The request now sits with the federal government, and no decision had been announced as of the governor's update. Until one comes, Shore towns head into the off-season without knowing whether FEMA money is on the way.
Source: Office of Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Originally reported by New Jersey 101.5
File photo: the beach in Stone Harbor. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons.
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