State Agency at Town Hall For Q&A on Flooding

This article was submitted by the town administrator.

Friday is the last day that a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency representative will be at to answer questions about flood damage.

As a result of Tuesday’s in communities in Southern Essex County, MEMA is working with Town officials to assess damages to homes, businesses, and public infrastructure. Despite the extensive damages felt by homeowners, renters, and business, it is quite likely that the damage will NOT meet the FEMA Individual Assistance (IA) or Public Assistance (PA) thresholds. Our state IA threshold is approximately 500+ dwellings with Moderate and/or Major uninsured damages. 

Although we may not meet the IA and PA thresholds for a Major Disaster Declaration, we are looking to gather damage information from impacted communities since we don't want to assume that we won't meet the PA and IA thresholds. 

We are also working with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to see if we can meet SBA disaster thresholds so that low interest loans can be made available to individuals, household and businesses. The threshold for an SBA Disaster Declaration requires at least 25 claimants, each of whom has an uninsured loss of at least 40% of the value of the damaged property. We can count property owners or renters. An SBA Economic Injury Declaration requires 5 or more businesses that likely will suffer at least a 40% uninsured loss of revenue over the period they will be closed as compared to the similar period a year ago. 

We are looking for damage information from each resident including;

1. Addresses of damaged homes, apartments, and businesses, and brief descriptions of the damages. If known, please tell us if insurance will cover the damages. 

MEMA will have a representative at Swampscott Town Hall from 1 - 4 Wednesday, 9 am to 4 pm Thursday, and 9 am to noon on Friday to answer questions residents may have.