Biden order allows FEMA aid for Nevada winter storm damage

The federal government has made Nevada state, tribal and local entities eligible for financial assistance for costs of recovering from severe winter storms that affected rural parts of the state in March.

President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration Friday authorizing Federal Emergency Management Agency cost-sharing funds for damage from flooding, landslides and mudslides from March 8 to March 19 in Douglas, Eureka, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral and Storey counties.

Eric Holt, emergency services director in Lincoln County, called the declaration important in rural areas affected by a series of wet winter storms that swept off the Pacific Ocean, dumping extraordinary amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada and rain on rangelands.

All but four of Nevada's 17 counties and Yomba Shoshone tribal lands were included in an emergency declaration initially enacted March 9 by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, was not among them.

U.S. 95, a key highway between Las Vegas and Reno, was closed for several days due to a rock fall near Walker Lake in Mineral County.

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The Nevada Division of Emergency Management official did not respond Friday to phone or email messages about statewide storm damage cost estimates.

Holt said it will cost several million dollars in Lincoln County to repair roads, a washed-out spillway at the Echo Canyon dam and other infrastructure.

"This will help with a 75% cost share from FEMA in covering those repairs and the costs spent in response to the flooding," Holt said. "There is no way we would have been able to take on that burden alone."

The declaration from the president, a Democrat, said federal funds also will be available for hazard mitigation measures statewide.