The Associated Press
and Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — Jefferson County is among the areas that will receive federal aid to recover from a late August windstorm now that President Barack Obama has signed a disaster declaration.
Island and Snohomish counties also are eligible for recovery aid and federal funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation statewide through the declaration signed today.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is surveying damage and may designate more counties for assistance.
The declaration orders federal aid to supplement state, tribal, eligible local governments and some private nonprofits on a cost-sharing basis for repairing or replacing facilities damaged in the Aug. 29 storm.
Winds that approached 90 mph on the Peninsula’s Pacific Coast and more than 50 mph in East Jefferson County dropped trees on cars and power lines, closing Olympic National Park roads and cutting power to more than 14,400 customers in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Of those who lost power, about 12,000 were Jefferson County Public Utility District customers.
Olympic National Park shut down completely after the windstorm and some areas remained closed for several days to clear trees and branches from roads and campgrounds and remove hazardous trees and snags.
Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, called the storm “the most powerful summer storm ever to hit our region,” in his weather blog, www.cliffmass.blogspot.com.
