NH requests $3M in federal disaster funds for storms damage

New Hampshire has officially requested $3 million-plus in federal disaster funding more than two months after consecutive January coastal storms and flooding damaged public infrastructure and private property.

Gov. Chris Sununu penned a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday calling for federal grant relief to be allotted to Coos, Grafton, Rockingham and Sullivan counties for the storms that struck on Jan. 10 and Jan. 13.

Sununu called for a statewide designation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which gives money to governments to help their communities rebuild and prevent future disaster losses.

The January storms, coupled with high tides, brought flooding of personal and public property in coastal communities, downing trees and power lines, littering roadways with debris and forcing residents to evacuate their homes. The Jan. 10 event weakened public infrastructure, while the subsequent Jan. 13 storm exacerbated previous recent damage and required wide-spanning municipal responses.

“For New Hampshire local jurisdictions, the greatest remaining unmet recovery need associated with this severe storm and flooding is financial assistance to help avoid economic shock to businesses and families through local property taxes,” Sununu's letter to Biden reads. “Without federal assistance, the ability of the communities within the State of New Hampshire to recover in a timely manner and avoiding long-term economic damage is severely hindered.”

Joint preliminary damage assessments conducted by local and state officials led to the state concluding $3,004,838 worth of public damage was caused by the weather occurring between Jan. 9-14, per Sununu's funding request. The figures tallied by local and state officials prior to Thursday's request do not account for damage to private property or businesses in New

Hampshire.

To be eligible for federal disaster funding, collective public damage across New Hampshire needed to be higher than just over $2.53 million, according to Vanessa Palange, spokesperson for New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Damage to public property and infrastructure in Rockingham County specifically had to cross a threshold of $1,445,210 to qualify for federal disaster funds, per the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

In Hampton, validated public damage totaled $329,830, the letter to Biden reads. Public damage costs in Rye from the storms are $257,131, compared to $76,000 throughout New Castle. The New Hampshire Port Authority in Portsmouth sustained $945,250 worth of damage, Sununu added.

Not included in the governor's request are figures from the individual assessment conducted at the Coast Guard station in New Castle.

“Their (individual damage assessment) reported millions of dollars in damages sustained to (the)... station due to the severity of the storm,” he wrote. “The station had waves crashing over the seawall on property resulting in standing water atop a two-story building.”

Throughout Rockingham County, public storm damage was assessed at $1,657,525.

“The impact of the response to this event was felt throughout the local mutual aid and state systems as personnel and assets were divided to the incident area,” Sununu's description of the storms says in part.

Following the storms, local leaders toured damage sites in Rye, North Hampton and Hampton with state officials and members of the state's congressional delegation.

Last week, Biden approved a federal disaster funding request from the state of Maine, where the cost of public repairs due to the January storms is estimated at over $70 million, according to Gov. Janet Mills' office.