REGION 1 – While the nation continues to mitigate against and confront the effects of COVID-19, New Hampshire and other New England states—along with numerous federal partners coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency—are taking steps to help communities recover from this unprecedented health & economic crisis.
For months, The Granite State and FEMA have led a joint effort to support the state through the coordination of additional federal agencies, the private sector, voluntary organizations, U.S. military medical personnel and critical resource needs.
To date more than $18 million in federal funding has been granted to the state of New Hampshire; the federal government has also provided significant amounts of PPE including: 1 million gloves, 203,849 surgical masks and 481,933 N95 respirators. Federal partners like the U.S. Small Business Administration have approved more than $629 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans to keep businesses across the state afloat, and the United States Department of Agriculture approved more than $5.3 million in assistance through The Emergency Food Assistance and Coronavirus Assistance Programs.
“FEMA continues to support New Hampshire with an eye toward recovery.” said Regional Administrator and Federal Coordinating Officer Captain Russ Webster, who oversees federal operations support of New Hampshire.
Crisis Counseling
In close coordination with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, FEMA Region 1 has also provided $120,924 through the Crisis Counseling Immediate Services Program (ISP) to provide counseling to survivors of COVID-19.
New Hampshire received an extension to its ISP grant to continue developing a crisis counseling program during the Regular Services Program application review process.
Public Assistance
FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) grant program provides essential funding for communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency. The New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency works with FEMA during all phases of the PA program and conducts final reviews of FEMA-approved projects.
To date, more than $179,959 in PA funding has been approved to reimburse the state, tribal, and local governments, and certain types of private non-profit organizations, for costs associated with emergency protective measures enacted to quickly respond to COVID-19.
The federal share for PA projects is not less than 75 percent of the eligible cost. The state determines how the non-federal share of the cost of a project (up to 25 percent) will be met.
Long Term Recovery
FEMA’s role in Long-Term Recovery is to increase communication and collaboration among stakeholders and support disaster recovery planning. This process opens access to funding from federal agencies other than FEMA.
The first step of the LTR process is to conduct a Rapid Needs Assessment. In New Hampshire the assessment is underway, with representative communities (Keene, Portsmouth and Littleton) chosen and stakeholders identified to provide insights and locate gaps in the state’s recovery needs.
The completed assessment is expected soon, and the findings will ultimately allow New Hampshire to make informed decisions about which economic solutions to pursue.
While COVID-19 recovery efforts are ongoing, FEMA continues to prepare for the pending hurricane season. “FEMA is building redundancy in our response capabilities and leveraging technology where possible to reduce person to person contact. Examples include damage inspections done virtually through facetime, hotels for sheltering and Civil Air Patrol flyovers for property damage assessments. Such information can be critical to hurricane response, as well as responding to COVID,” said Webster, who also noted Region 1 is training and cross-training staff members to build bench strength for a more robust response and management of multiple incidents.