Connecticut residents received around $7 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to rebuild their homes after the flash flood on August 18. The Small Business Association (SBA) has offered more than $1 million in low-interest loans.
The flash flooding is estimated to have done more than a billion dollars worth of damage to the state, which is still recovering from the storm. Route 34 by Loughlin Road in Oxford just reopened after being destroyed.
On Wednesday, in Southbury, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) stressed the importance of continuing funding for FEMA and the need for policy changes on how it can be spent.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he won’t call Congress back before the election to pass more funding for the agency, which is dealing with billions of dollars in damage caused by back-to-back hurricanes in the South. But Blumenthal said it must be a top priority.
“The SBA has run out of money. FEMA is running on fumes, it needs more money as well. And if we don't come back before the election, we need to come back right afterward and make it our first order of business to replenish both FEMA and the SBA, because they are literally out of funds or running out of funds, and that will be a tragedy, not just for Connecticut, but for all the places that have been so hard hit by Helene and Milton,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal also wants to amend the Stafford Act, a federal law that deals with disaster relief, to encourage FEMA to spend money on fortification instead of just damage repair.
“The 1000-year storms are now coming every year, whether here or in other parts of the country,” Blumenthal said. “We need to build for that new normal so that we know it can withstand the winds, the surging tides, the downpour, the tornadoes.”
Amending the act to emphasize resilience could mean raising home levels or wind-proofing windows and structures.
“We want to get back and build back better and make and make it so we don't have these issues going forward,” Southbury emergency management director Stephen Schnell said, standing in front of a road destroyed by the flood.
Connecticut residents looking for more information about how FEMA can help can find it here.
