Good Morning All,
In the words of the immortal Major Payne, “get some rest …tomorrow we gonna start
the hard stuff.”
Now that we are beginning what may be the largest recovery operation in the state’s
history, I’m getting a lot of questions, so I’ll try to answer the most frequently asked ones
first.
1.) Where do I send documentation, including disaster declarations, PDA data,
pictures, etc?
Send everything to the EOC at nm.eoc@state.nm.us. The entire recovery staff is on the
auto-forward so we get everything. This will also insure the EOC, Sr. Staff and ESF
partners have good Situational Awareness.
2.) What is the incident period?
We actually have several declarations in place and requests for more.

Post-fire Flood Threat – EO 2013-022 – this is for protective actions taken to
reduce the threat and impact from flooding off of burn scars. We have over a
million acres of burn scar in the state and many of them have generated
tremendous volumes of debris. This EO is not for flooding events, but for preflood actions.

2013 Monsoon Flooding – EO 2013-027 – Cabinet Secretary Myers, in
consultation with the Governor’s Office decided, rather than implementing a
dozen separate EOs for events that occurred during the Monsoon, they elected
to do one EO with an incident period beginning July 1, 2013 and continuing.

2013 September Flood – EO 2013-031 – Due to the scale of this event the
Governor elected to do an EO specifically for the flood beginning September 9
and continuing.
We are actively seeking two Major Disaster Declarations from the President:

Severe Storms and Flooding July 23-28,2013 – Currently we have requested
Public Assistance (PA) for Colfax, Sandoval, Bernalillo, Socorro and Luna
Counties, and PA for Cochiti, Kewa (Santa Domingo), San Felipe and Sandia
Pueblos. NOTE: If you have damages that occurred during this incident period
and you wish to be included in the declaration, you MUST notify the EOC
immediately! We can add counties and pueblos to a declaration, but have a
limited amount of time to do it. We have requested Hazard Mitigation Statewide.
We did not have the level of damages to request Individual Assistance.

Statewide Flooding September 9 and continuing – We are currently doing PDA in
the areas we believe to have the greatest impact. The goal is to obtain a
declaration quickly and add-on additional areas later. We believe we have
sufficient damages to request PA, however we are still gathering data to assess
our eligibility for IA. As always we request Hazard Mitigation Statewide.
We also have two SBA declarations for Economic Injury –


Tres Lagunas Fire in San Miguel
Hail Storm in Guadalupe County
SBA declarations include the designated counties and all adjacent counties.
3) Why isn’t the state seeking Individual Assistance?
We are currently evaluating our eligibility. IA declarations requests are unique in that
they don’t have a hard and fast threshold the way PA does. IA has a guideline based on
the size of the state. New Mexico is considered a small population state, so we need
approximately 170 destroyed or major damaged, primary, uninsured structures. We
haven’t abandoned this effort, but will continue to evaluate our eligibility.
4) Does my community need a Hazard Mitigation Plan to eligible for disaster
assistance?
The Public Assistance program does not require the community have a mitigation plan.
In order to receive grants for long-term mitigation projects, including those not related to
the declared disaster, a community does need a plan. Wendy Blackwell, State Hazard
Mitigation Officer can answer questions about this program.
5) What do I need to do to receive assistance?
It’s imperative you document the damages, picture are best. Remember we’re
interested in what is broken, not the disaster itself. Pictures of flooded roads are nice,
pictures of damaged roads, etc. are what we need. Document, document, document,
keep all time records, equipment logs, invoices, etc. Notify the EOC when you have
damage.
If you have something in the record that is unclear or requires explanation, add a memo
to the file explaining it. Don’t make recovery guess what a document means!
The Recovery Unit will be contacting local emergency managers to plan damage
assessments over the next few weeks. Be prepared to show us, the biggest, most costly
damage sites first. When reporting damage please keep the public infrastructure
separate from private.
6) How soon can my community expect a check?
Recovery is a process, it requires significant effort. The clearer, more accurate the
documentation you provide, the faster the process will go. You can expect
reimbursement to take 6 months to a year. It is not uncommon for projects to take
longer.
7) Who do I talk to if I have questions?
Brian Williams
505-476-9601
brian.williams@state.nm.us