PEARL, Miss. - The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced today that the four counties in the Mississippi federal disaster declaration – Forrest, Lamar, Marion and Wayne – are eligible to receive additional disaster assistance in recovering from the storms and tornadoes of Feb. 10.

In an amendment to the original presidential declaration, Forrest and Lamar counties are now eligible to receive Public Assistance in Categories C through G: 

Category C - Roads and Bridges

PEARL, Miss. – With the opening of a Disaster Recovery Center today in Foxworth, disaster survivors in Marion, Forrest, Lamar and Wayne counties can meet face-to-face with recovery specialists in five locations.

The centers are staffed with recovery professionals from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration, who can provide information and answer questions about disaster-related assistance.

NEW YORK — Disaster assistance to New York survivors of Hurricane Sandy:

Following is a summary of key federal disaster aid programs that can be made available as needed and warranted under President Obama's disaster declaration issued for the State of Louisiana.

Assistance for the State, Tribes, and Affected Local Governments Can Include as Required:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal disaster aid has been made available to the State of Louisiana to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe winter storms during the period of January 8 to January 17, 2013.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, nearly $12 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in Livingston Parish now totals $11,999,429.

Livingston Parish by the Numbers

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $7,900,306

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, more than $16.5 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in Tangipahoa Parish now totals $16,521,281.

Tangipahoa Parish by the Numbers

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $10,936,953

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, nearly $31 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in St. Tammany Parish now totals $30,917,776.

St. Tammany Parish by the Numbers                                                   

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $9,815,078

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, nearly $58 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in Orleans Parish now totals $57,966,406.

Orleans Parish by the Numbers

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $14,211,934

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, more than $66 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in Jefferson Parish now totals $66,002,788.

Jefferson Parish by the Numbers

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $17,973,620

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, nearly $91 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in St. John Parish now totals $90,989,232.

St. John Parish by the Numbers

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $31,522,411

BATON ROUGE, La. – Nearly six months since the Aug. 29, 2012, federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana, nearly $111.9 million in state and federal disaster assistance has been approved for the parish. Disaster assistance for survivors and their communities in Plaquemines Parish now totals $111,881,276.

Plaquemines Parish by the Numbers

TOTAL Individual Assistance grants: $10,745,555

Hurricane Isaac Six Months Later: $500 Million in Recovery Dollars – and Counting

BATON ROUGE, La. – In the nearly six months since Hurricane Isaac thrashed Louisiana, recovery has progressed for survivors, businesses and communities.

Below is a snapshot from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the state and federal assistance dollars approved to date and some milestones reached since the Aug. 29 disaster declaration:

BATON ROUGE, La. – Six months after Hurricane Isaac slammed into the Gulf coast, Louisianians are starting to make the transition from “survive” to “thrive.” Hard-hit communities are planning how to build back better than ever even as their residents are working to get their lives back on track.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana property owners with flood insurance policies whose homes or other structures were damaged during Hurricane Isaac have an additional 60 days to file claims for their flood-related losses. This means most policyholders have until April 22 to complete their proof of loss claims.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) usually requires claims to be reported within 60 days from the date of loss. Four extensions have been granted.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is requesting individuals who are interested in serving on the National Advisory Council (NAC) to apply for appointment.  The NAC is an advisory committee established to ensure effective and ongoing coordination of federal preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation for natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.

Editors:  The BaSE tool and supporting documentation can be found online.

NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. -- Water resource managers can now estimate daily baseline streamflows in a matter of minutes for any location along Pennsylvania's waterways. The Baseline Streamflow Estimator, called "BaSE," provides users with estimated daily mean streamflow, minimally altered by human activities, for locations on Pennsylvania streams that don’t have streamgages. Pennsylvania is one of the first states in the nation to have such a tool.

"BaSE provides water-resource managers with nearly 50 years of daily mean streamflow for ungaged sites in a matter of minutes that they can use for their projects. These daily values can then be used to generate a number of streamflow statistics that may be needed for decision making," said Marla Stuckey, USGS hydrologist and project lead in Pennsylvania.

Water-resource managers use daily mean streamflow to evaluate withdrawal, allocation, and wastewater permit applications and to assess the health of the Commonwealth's streams.  Historically, it has been difficult, costly, and time intensive to estimate daily mean streamflow for stream locations that were not gaged, or monitored. Now, BaSE allows users to estimate daily mean streamflow values and daily hydrographs by entering a few basic basin characteristics in an easy-to-use tool.  The output is a summary spreadsheet, containing information about the location of interest, including daily mean streamflow for every day from 1960 to 2008. 

BaSE relies on a methodology that uses flow-duration curves, which illustrate the percentage of time, or probability, that a flow value in a stream will equal or exceed a particular value. Flow-duration curves are generated for reference streamgage locations with monitored streamflow and the curves are transferred to ungaged locations to estimate daily mean streamflow.

BaSE chooses the most appropriate reference streamgage for the ungaged location and applies newly developed regression equations to convert the transferred flow duration curve to streamflow at the ungaged location.

A USGS Scientific Investigations Report describing BaSE can be found online. 

NEW YORK – The Federal Emergency Management Agency, at the request of the State of New York, has approved a 14-day extension to the Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program, which allows eligible survivors from Hurricane Sandy who cannot return to their homes to stay in participating hotels or motels.

NEW YORK – Hurricane Sandy survivors in New York have until 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, to visit the disaster recovery centers at the Recreation Center and Ice Arena, 700 Magnolia Blvd., Long Beach, NY, 11561, and at the Freeport Recreation Center, 130 East Merrick Rd., Freeport, NY, 11520.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its federal partners, including the National Weather Service, continue to closely monitor severe winter weather impacting the Central United States.  FEMA’s regional office in Kansas City, Mo., is in contact with state emergency management counterparts and with tribal emergency managers in the path of the storm. In coordination with state partners, FEMA pre-positioned state liaisons in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas.