More than a month after the deadly Gray and Oregon Road fires tore through Spokane County, the road to recovery is proving to be a long and bumpy one.
Gov. Jay Inslee set aside $1.25 million in emergency funds, which will go to asbestos testing. But, a question mark remains for getting federal money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
FEMA offers two types of assistance: Public assistance and individual assistance.
Assistant Director of Operations for the Washington State Emergency Management Stacy McClain spoke to Spokane County commissioners on Tuesday. During that meeting, he reported the Spokane County fires don’t meet the state threshold to get public assistance funding from FEMA. The state threshold is about $13 million.
McClain said the public assistance program has to do with infrastructure and “there’s not enough damage to meet our state threshold.”
According to Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper, that's not surprising since the fires mostly left public infrastructure untouched. She listed off what managed to survive the flames:
“City hall standing. School standing. Didn't lose one business. Library standing. All churches are standing. So we're positioned well to help, but the devastation came to personal individual properties."
The next option to look at to get FEMA funding is individual assistance, but McClain says that depends on how many homes don't have insurance.
As of Tuesday's meeting with county commissioners, about 40 homes were found to not have insurance, but there are about 200 homes they don't have insurance data on.
McClain admitted, "The numbers that we have right now, if we were to submit today with only 40 homes, we would not get approved.”
Mayor Cooper says the thought process of turning to FEMA first needs to change.
“When we go to big government first, it takes the longest,” Cooper said. “The process is complicated. It's not straightforward. There’s documentation and date and all and help from the federal government happens much later in the process, so I think we make a mistake by going to the federal government first.”
Part of the response effort includes the Long Term Recovery Group that Cooper serves as president of: “We have a lot of power at our grassroots level.”
Local officials have until Oct. 21 to submit for individual assistance.
Spokane County Emergency Management deputy director Chandra Fox also told county commissioners that an application's been made to the Department of Commerce to get $2.5 million through their Rapid Response Program specifically for debris management.
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