Six Oregon counties get flood disaster declaration

A federal disaster declaration was declared Tuesday in the state of Oregon, ordering federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides from April 6-21 in six Oregon counties: Curry, Douglas, Grant, Linn, Umatilla and Wheeler.

Heavy rainfall combined with snowmelt runoff set the stage for an extended period of flooding from the Willamette Valley to Eastern Oregon. Reservoirs were near full capacity in early April. The sequence of events of swollen rivers, full reservoirs, and record-breaking rainfall caused widespread flooding, flash flooding, mudslides, and landslides across the state, with the six named counties being the most severely impacted.

Oregon communities faced numerous hardships during this destructive event, most significantly the tragic loss of life in Douglas County as result of a swollen river.

A joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) was conducted the week of May 13 in the affected counties, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. More than $8 million in damages were documented by our local partners, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff during damage assessments following the storms.

“The impacts of these events have been devastating to the local communities,” said Governor Kate Brown. “I applaud the incredible efforts by our local and tribal emergency managers and state agency partners who have worked tirelessly to help their fellow Oregonians during these severe weather events.”

This disaster declaration makes federal funding is available to the state and eligible local and tribal governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides in the six eligible counties.

OEM has developed a new tool to help articulate the impacts of the severe weather and flooding experienced in Oregon called a story map, which was included in the declaration request. View the story map for the April 2019 floods here.