The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal emergency aid has been made available to the State of Washington to supplement state and local response efforts in the area affected by wildfires beginning on July 9. They are still raging.

The President’s action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Chelan and Okanogan and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.

Michael J. Hall has been named as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal response operations in the affected area.