President issues major disaster declaration for Valentine’s Day storm

A Major Disaster Declaration has been issued for the region by President Donald Trump for the historic Valentine’s Day storm that wreaked havoc on Riverside County.

On April 15, Ruiz penned a letter to the President, urging him to issue $150,000,000 in federal relief funds to help businesses and residents who were adversely impacted by the floods.

“We must support the people who, due to road damage, endure long drives to medical appointments, loss of customers to their small business, and longer commutes to work,” Ruiz wrote in April.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/CongressmanRuiz/status/1124027154872840193″,”author_name”:”Raul Ruiz”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/CongressmanRuiz”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;The severe Valentine’s Day flooding that washed-out SR-243 has been declared a Major Disaster. On April 15th, I called on POTUS to issue this declaration. I’ll continue to work w &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CAgovernor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@CAgovernor&#lt;/a&#gt; & &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/fema?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@fema&#lt;/a&#gt; to ensure full funding/resources for recovery efforts. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@GavinNewsom&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Raul Ruiz (@CongressmanRuiz) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CongressmanRuiz/status/1124027154872840193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;May 2, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

The storm’s destructive force led to the severing of the primary routes to the region’s mountain communities in the San Jacinto range. State Route 243 completely washed out, along with State Route 74 toward Hemet.

In a statement issued on May 1, the White House confirmed the declaration:

“President Donald J. Trump declared that a major disaster exists in the State of California and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe winter storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides from February 13 to February 15, 2019. Federal funding is available to State and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides in the counties of Calaveras, Colusa, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Napa, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Shasta, and Trinity.”

Governor Gavin Newsom also wrote a letter to the president in April, citing the enormous negative impact statewide travel suffered; $157 million of damage spread out over 30 California counties.

“I have determined that these atmospheric river storm system are of such severity and magnitude that continued effective response is beyond the capability of the state and affected local governments, and supplemental federal assistance is necessary,” Newsom closed in his letter.

Benigno Vern Ruiz has been named the Federal Coordinating Officer in charge of recovery efforts in the areas that are covered by the declaration.

“The declaration authorizes reimbursement and funding for emergency work to repair or replace disaster-damaged facilities, which in this case includes the roads that were washed out,” read an email from Hernán Quintas, press secretary for Rep. Ruiz. “The Federal Government will reimburse for
75% of the costs for repairs, which is significant.”

The funds can be used to help with repairs to roads, bridges, and public buildings, assist with debris removal and aid with the assist the restoration of public utility infrastructure.

“It also makes the area eligible for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, where entities such as the county can apply for funding for projects that can mitigate the effects of future disasters like heavy rains and wildfire,” Quintas closed in his email.

For details on applying for this aid, see the forms below: