Guinn asks for presidential disaster declaration

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005 | 9:17 a.m.

The emergency in Clark County is officially over, although some agencies are still picking up the pieces and totaling the costs from January's floods and avalanches.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, however, reacting to last month's deluge of snow and rain, has formally asked for a presidential disaster declaration for both Clark and Lincoln counties. Guinn and county officials reacted to assessments made the past two weeks by teams of federal and state officials.

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly proclaimed a storm-related emergency Jan. 11 for flooding conditions in the northeastern part of the county and for avalanche conditions on Mount Charleston.

"The findings of the preliminary damage assessment teams determined the damage to be extensive enough that there is a need to request a federal declaration," Guinn said Tuesday.

"These two storms crippled Nevada. The costs for response and recovery have caused financial burdens on many communities."

Jim Spinello, Clark County administrative services assistant director, told the County Commission that the teams looked at 217 houses in Clark County. Of those, 133 homes were affected by the storms. Two houses were destroyed, 37 suffered major damage, and 45 had minor damage, he told the commission.

Spinello said estimates of the dollar amount of damage to the homes weren't immediately available, but the teams identified an estimated $3.8 million in direct damage to public infrastructure road bridges, sewers, and in storm-related expenses to local governments. State agencies reported another $2 million in expenses to the Nevada Division of Wildlife resources, including nature preserves in the Moapa Valley area.

Much of the damage was caused by the mud which coated and killed vegetation when the flood waters receded, Spinello said.

The total in damages and expenses exceeds the $4.4 million threshold needed for a federal response, Spinello said, opening the door to Guinn's request Tuesday.

The federal aid would require a federal disaster declaration, Spinello said. If that happens, the county will open a disaster field office to assist families and draft requests for federal assistance for repairs to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

A federal disaster declaration would mean "there are different forms of federal assistance available," he said, while the local governments also could apply for aid.

Already, Reilly has requested assistance from Nevada's congressional delegation to receive more federal funding for long-term flood control and for upgrading the pipelines that feed gasoline and jet fuel from Southern California to Clark County. The storms that ripped through the region also knocked out the fuel pipelines in the Mojave Desert, at least the third time the pipelines have been knocked out in recent years.

Guinn, in his request to the federal government for disaster assistance, said damage in Clark County exceeds $5 million. He said 52 ranches and farms, which are concentrated in the northeast, suffered in the storms in Clark County.

Lincoln County was also hit. Damage to agricultural concerns amounted to more than $2 million, according to estimates.

Spinello noted that despite Clark County's lifting the storm-related emergency proclamation, the "emergency condition" announced last summer based on hospital emergency-room overcrowding by mentally ill patients remains in effect.