The Tulsa area is still waiting on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to approve officials' request for public assistance in the aftermath of the June storm that tore through the area. FEMA provides federal dollars to areas hit by disasters.
The storm in question hit the the Tulsa area during the early morning hours of June 18, knocking out power to more than 160,000 Public Service Company customers in the county. It also damaged more than 1,000 homes in the metro area.
Tulsa Area Emergency Management Director Joe Kralicek said the state submitted its request to the regional FEMA office on July 1. At a Tulsa County Commissioners meeting Monday, Kralicek told the commissioners there had been "a delay" in the approval of the request, and that he was looking into it.
"Over the weekend, I know the state was in conversations with the White House regarding this. Our federal congressional delegation is issuing formal inquiries as to what the delay is at the FEMA side, and that FEMA Region 6, which is our local office down in Denton, Texas, is requesting information from FEMA headquarters as to what’s going on and what the delay is," Kralicek said.
A FEMA spokesperson told Public Radio Tulsa her agency is currently assessing the damage.
Kralicek said the Tulsa area has surpassed the threshold for damage required to be granted their request. During the week of the storm, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said the damage threshold was exceeded just with the damage to the convention center.
While FEMA can also grant individual assistance if enough people's homes are damaged, Kralicek said state officials told him they didn't have the numbers to meet the threshold.
Because they likely wouldn't reach the threshold, area officials have promoted Small Business Administration loans available to businesses and nonprofits. At the end of last week, SBA had received 147 applications for relief loans, and had approved 17 for $536,000.
Kralicek said SBA typically only receives applications for relief grants in the single digits after similar events.
"The fact that we’ve received 147 of those so far after one week is significant, and shows that there’s a lot of unmet need out there in the community and a lot of impact that needs to be addressed," he said.
