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Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Boxer & Feinstein join the call, but odds are against California getting disaster declaration for Fresno County

Posted by: Maven on June 24, 2009 at 8:21 am

From Stockton’s Record:

California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are joining Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling on the Obama administration to issue a federal disaster declaration for Fresno County.

In a letter to the president Monday, the senators said the county has been hit hard by water shortages from a lack of rainfall and the need to protect endangered species. A disaster declaration would help the region obtain emergency unemployment and other benefits.

More on this brief story from The Record by clicking here. Read the text of the Boxer-Feinstein letter to President Obama by clicking here.

However, the chances of obtaining the federal disaster declaration aren’t good, according to McClatchy Newspapers:

Presidents rarely designate drought-stricken regions as major disaster areas. That could prove a problem for Fresno County, which is both dry and hurting.

The last time drought was the basis for a major presidential disaster designation within the continental United States was in 1980, in New Jersey. California officials are hoping that President Barack Obama will buck that historical trend on Fresno County’s behalf.

But while the presidential disaster request made June 19 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on sounds powerful, it may not be well targeted.

“The programs provided under a presidential declaration generally are not the kind most needed in a drought,” Ernest Abbott, former general counsel for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, noted Tuesday.

More from McClatchy Newspapers by clicking here.

June 24, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack, San Joaquin Valley

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