ALBANY — Columbia County is included in a state of emergency declaration issued Wednesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias.
The state of emergency makes local governments eligible for additional clean-up and operational support in the wake of the storm.
The counties included in the declaration are: Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester.
The declaration will also apply to those counties bordering the 11 specifically stated in the declaration, as is standard practice. Columbia, Ulster and Sullivan will also be covered by the order.
Declaring a state of emergency allows state agencies to provide direct support to local governments without having previous standing agreements in place, Cuomo said.
“We’re taking an all-hands-on-deck approach and activating every resource at our disposal to expedite communities’ recovery from the impacts of Tropical Storm Isaias,” Cuomo said. “The state is working closely with local governments to help ensure they have the help they need to get back on their feet. We’re far too familiar with severe weather, but New Yorkers show their true spirit in times of crisis and we’ll prove it once more.”
As Isaias moved quickly on a northern track through the eastern portion of the state, it produced numerous downed trees, localized flash flooding and caused a peak of more than 920,000 power outages, including more than 8,000 in Columbia County. The declaration follows the governor’s announcement of an investigation into the operations of utility companies, before, during and after the storm, as 703,191 New Yorkers remain without power, Cuomo said.
As this investigation begins, all other state agencies with emergency response capabilities remain fully engaged with local governments across the state to ensure they have all the resources they need to complete clean-up and recovery operations, Cuomo said.