Contact Button

Email Updates

  • Email Updates

    Enter your Email and click submit to
    receive email alerts on issues affecting you

Print

Putnam County Press: Helping the Hudson Valley Recover from Irene and Lee

One year ago, Hudson Valley families, businesses, and farms were hit hard by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. On the night that Irene hit, I visited with local emergency teams as they initiated their response. First responders, community officials, National Guardsmen, and volunteers bravely did their best to prevent loss of life and to help our neighbors cope with the severe damage to their homes, businesses, farms, roads, and bridges. In the days that followed, I visited the many devastated places throughout our region, and I determined to ensure that our communities receive all necessary federal emergency assistance.

I was the first member of New York's congressional delegation to call upon President Obama to issue a Presidential Disaster Declaration to ensure that residents in every one of our counties would be eligible for assistance for individual families and businesses, as well as aid for our local governments, roads, and infrastructure. I worked regularly with all the federal agencies involved in recovery and reconstruction, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Small Business Administration, and Army Corps of Engineers. I helped create and co-chair the nonpartisan Hurricane Irene Coalition, working with Democratic and Republican members of Congress from throughout the affected areas to mobilize federal funds and efforts.

New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia once said, "There is no Democratic or Republican way to clean the streets"; the same is true of disaster recovery.

Throughout the weeks and months after the storms, I voted in support of every legislative proposal that provided disaster assistance, securing more than $13.5 billion in additional disaster assistance funding. The Hurricane Irene Coalition successfully requested funding for several specific programs to help our local small businesses, farmers, and communities. This included $367 million for agriculture programs and more than $1.66 billion for the Federal Highway Emergency Relief program, of which almost $90 million was allocated to repair highways and roads in New York alone.

My colleagues and I urged the Secretary of Agriculture to permit retroactive enrollment in the crop insurance program and the noninsured crop disaster assistance program, and I co-sponsored multiple pieces of legislation to provide additional assistance for our farmers. To date, FEMA's Individuals and Households Program has distributed more than $155 million in the Hudson Valley, while FEMA's Public Assistance Programs has distributed more that $74 million to local governments and eligible private nonprofit organizations.

In October 2011, I brought together for the first time FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to expedite crucial repairs and restoration. We were able to make progress in fixing the drainage for Orange County's Black Dirt region, which has long been hampered by burdensome DEC regulations. I continue to push for infrastructure projects requiring federal and state cooperation, including rebuilding the eroding banks of the Moodna Creek and reconstruction of the Forge Hill Bridge in New Windsor. The process for these projects is taking far too long, and I met with local officials just last week to visit these sites again and discuss further ways to expedite efforts.

Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee ravaged the Hudson Valley. But the residents and communities of our region are stronger than any storm, as the many stories of assistance and recovery in the aftermath attests. I'm here to continue ensuring that our families, businesses, farms, and local governments continue receiving all the federal assistance necessary. We have a long way still to go, and I will continue the fight for the Hudson Valley as we continue our recovery.

Rep. Nan Hayworth, M.D. (NY-19), represents Orange, Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties in the Hudson Valley of New York.