FEMA declines to help West, Tex., rebuild public facilities damaged in fertilizer-plant explosion

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it will not help rebuild roads, a school and the sewage system in West, Tex., a town of 2,800 that was badly damaged by the explosion at the local fertilizer plant in April. “The impact from this event is not of the severity and magnitude that warrants a major disaster declaration,” FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate told Gov. Rick Perry in a letter.

"FEMA has provided aid to individual residents and households, but a major disaster declaration . . . would provide money needed to rebuild parts of the city," Terrence Henry of NPR reports. "The agency will also not provide unemployment assistance, crisis counseling, legal services and other aid." In another letter, FEMA said “The remaining cost for permanent work is within the capabilities of the state and affected local governments.” The letter was obtained by StateImpact, a consortium of NPR and some of its state affiliates.

"West Independent School District carried a $60 million insurance policy, but its damages in the blast would only cover about half of the estimated $117.4 million needed to renovate or replace the damaged buildings, school officials have said," Tommy Witherspoon and Regina Dennis of the Waco Tribune Herald report. (Photo of West Intermediate School by Rod Aydelotte, WTH)

Dallas Morning News columnist Todd Robberson writes, "The fact that FEMA's response was in a letter sent directly to Gov. Rick Perry, an ardent foe of just about everything federal, strongly suggests partisan politics is heavily at play here. This stinks." (Read more)