President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration in several counties for damage from the wild December storm that left tens of thousands of people in the dark on Christmas Day, officials said Thursday.
WINTER STORM LEAVES OVER 800,000 WITHOUT POWER CHRISTMAS EVE MORNING
The declaration unlocks federal public aid funding for Franklin, Knox, Oxford, Somerset, Waldo and York counties, along with statewide hazard mitigation grants.
President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration (not pictured) for a severe winter storm that swept through Maine on Christmas Day. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This critical federal funding will go a long way toward rebuilding and repairing critical infrastructure to help communities hit hard by December’s storms,” Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and the state’s four-member congressional delegation said in a joint statement Thursday.
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE BUILDING COLLAPSES UNDER A LOT OF SNOW
In Maine, more than 300,000 homes and businesses lost power as a result of the storm that began on Dec. 23, and about 40,000 were still in the dark on Christmas Eve.
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The storm, which caused coastal flooding, road washouts and wind damage, was part of the same storm system that killed more than 40 people in western New York.