City officials are assessing and evaluating the damage from Tuesday's big wind storm to decide whether or not to make an emergency declaration.
Municipal Manager George Vakalis said within hours of the storm, the city’s emergency operations center opened up and called in additional resources.
And while some residents who are displaced or without power are wondering why shelters aren’t set up, Vakalis said the Red Cross typically makes that request, and the city has not received such a request up to this point. In terms of requesting aid from the state, Vakalis said there are a number of factors and a high threshold to meet, and the decision is up to Mayor Dan Sullivan.
“Criteria have to be met. Some of the criteria are that it’s beyond the capability physically of a local jurisdiction to be able to handle the situation, or it’s beyond the funding source of that particular local jurisdiction, or a combination of both, or the order of magnitude and the number of folks that have been affected and because of the nature of the damage far exceeds the insurance levels people have on their personal property,” said Vakalis. “Those are things we have to take into account and again all this stuff is collected and we have to show all those categories and present it.”
The city is emphasizing the importance of being prepared at an individual level. Saturday, there is a preparedness fair at the Loussac Library from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
