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Gov. Pillen Requests Extension to Submit Information for Wildfire Damage
LINCOLN, NE – Governor Jim Pillen is asking officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for additional time to submit information relative to damage done to public infrastructure from the Morrill and Cottonwood fires. If the 30-day extension is approved, the state would have until May 27 to comply.
The information is necessary to apply for a federal disaster declaration. The Governor’s letter explains that the extension will allow the state to work with FEMA Region VII in conducting joint preliminary damage assessments (PDA) in Arthur, Dawson, Garden, Grant, Keith, Lincoln, and Morrill counties.
The Morrill and Cottonwood fires burned in excess of 770,000 acres. Efforts to assess the totality of the damage have been hampered due to additional fires in those areas, requiring fire suppression resources and complicating the ability to determine the extent of damage and where it originated.
Should a major disaster declaration be approved through FEMA, it would allow the use of federal funds to assist with costs of repairing public infrastructure damaged in the Morrill and Cottonwood fires.
The Governor’s team has been in regular touch with FEMA and President Trump’s administration, which have been incredibly responsive and helpful in the aftermath of the state’s major wildfires. Additional information will be shared concerning the disaster declaration process, as it becomes available.
A copy of the Governor’s letter is attached below.
