The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Friday announced a final rule enabling states that host evacuees from states receiving presidential disaster declarations to be eligible for some reimbursement through host-state sheltering grants. The new rule allows host states to be reimbursed from FEMA for the base salaries of state and local employees providing services under a sheltering grant. “The changes made by this rule will improve the ability of states outside a declared disaster area to provide quick support to the families and individuals who have been impacted,” said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate in a news release.
Historically costs associated with disasters incurred outside the presidentially declared disaster area were not recoverable except through mutual aid agreements. Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 45 states requested and received disaster declarations in order to recoup the costs of sheltering evacuees from the Gulf Coast.
