GOSHEN – Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus on Tuesday supported a resolution submitted by the legislature requesting additional federal and state assistance to all individuals, businesses, and farmers impacted by the recent flooding and related destruction in the county.
Many of those residents, as well as the businesses and farmers, do not have sufficient insurance coverage or other governmental assistance to mitigate their financial losses related to the flooding, Neuhaus said.
“The disaster declaration that the president approved only helps reimbursing local governments like the towns, the villages, the county – but unfortunately, I have over 1,000 residents that are on file that had significant flooding in their houses. I also had 20 households that we call ‘red flag,’ which means they have to be completely demolished, and those are the folks we are worried about
“Our federal and state governments need to prioritize helping Orange County residents who suffered significant hardships as a result of the storm,” Neuhaus said.
The county executive said under the governor’s Flood Assistance Program, those individuals and businesses may only be able to receive very limited private funding assistance.
“It is misleading for the governor and the state to announce funding for storm damage relief for Orange County residents when in reality the criteria for qualifying excludes most of the people in dire need of assistance,” said County Legislature Chairwoman Katie Bonelli. “We implore all our state representatives in Albany to carefully review this action and make adjustments that will truly assist our residents.”
The storm and flooding caused major damage to West Point, Highland Falls and Cornwall-on-Hudson, among other areas.
