Washington, D.C.- President Biden has approved a disaster declaration for the flooding that impacted Rutland and Addison counties Aug. 3-5.

This will open the door for those counties to receive federal assistance to help recovery efforts. Federal funds are now available to reimburse up to 75% of the money cities and towns have spent on debris removal, road, and public building repairs, and staff overtime accrued from responding to and cleaning up from the storm.

According to Gov. Scott’s administration, federal assessors found more than $1.2 million in eligible costs for reimbursement.

Middlebury received roughly three months of rains in the span of a few hours during the time period the disaster declaration applies to.

Rutland and Addison counties weren’t initially included in the disaster declaration for flooding from July 7-12.

When Gov. Phil Scott initially requested a disaster declaration for Rutland and Addison counties he said, “The severe storms and flooding from early August compounded the impacts of July flooding and rainfall, overwhelming state and local resources. Municipal budgets are stretched thin as towns work to recover from these additional storms, and another disaster declaration is needed to help address infrastructure damage that is not covered by the July disaster declaration.”

This comes with less than one week before the Oct. 12 deadline for people to apply for individual assistance through FEMA related to the July floods.

People impacted by the July flooding can apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov, through the FEMA app, or by calling (800) 621-3362.

If your application has been denied, FEMA encourages you to appeal within 60 days of being denied.

The top five reasons for an application being denied are that insurance covers the loss, damages may not rise to the need for federal assistance, the damaged home may not be a primary residence, FEMA assistance would be a duplication of benefits from other sources, inspectors have been unable to reach the applicants.

If for whatever reason you need to update your application, that can be done online, or by calling 800-621-3363.