WASHINGTON, D.C. — FEMA says ‘no’ again.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has turned down Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s appeal for a major disaster declaration following the Jan. 9 chemical spill on the Elk River in Charleston and the water emergency that followed.
(Read FEMA rejection letter here)
In a letter to Tomblin, FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said the agency once again reviewed the information from West Virginia following the governor’s latest appeal and still believes what happened with the spill of Crude MCHM and the water contamination in parts of nine counties was not a major disaster.
FEMA previously agreed to provide other kinds of assistance to the state. For example, government entities are being reimbursed for the money they spent in response to the emergency. Fugate said that’s “sufficient to meet the needs of the event.”