In Roundtable With Whatcom County Mayors & First Responders Dealing with Record Flooding, Cantwell Calls for More Federal Resources and Coordination

In Roundtable With Whatcom County Mayors & First Responders Dealing with Record Flooding, Cantwell Calls for More Federal Resources and Coordination

"Where is FEMA?" Cantwell asks. "Where are they going to be on the ground, and how can we best communicate with them?"; Commits to adding dedicated FEMA and NOAA's National Weather Service reps for Whatcom County

EVERSON, WA - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Finance Committee, joined U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D, WA-02) for a briefing and roundtable discussion about flood impacts to Whatcom County from local mayors, tribal leaders, and first responders.

During the roundtable discussion, Sen. Cantwell gave the following remarks. Video of her remarks is available HERE. Video of full roundtable available HERE.

"I'm going to go back and request that we get somebody dedicated up here ASAP to just handle the FEMA response. We were in Skagit earlier today, and people were like, well, where is FEMA? Where are they? So people want to know, where are they, where are they going to be on the ground, and how can we best communicate with them," Sen. Cantwell said.

"If law enforcement and our first responders don't have a direct NOAA contact -- right now, they have established a NOAA weather forecast person in three locations, but I'm going to recommend that they have somebody up here, or at least be joined at the hip with you on all of these next events that are starting tomorrow and on Monday, to help give you the most accurate information so that you can use that information and planning."

A transcript of Sen. Cantwell's full remarks is available HERE.

Earlier today, Sen. Cantwell joined Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Governor Bob Ferguson in Monroe for a flooding impacts briefing from Snohomish County officials, and for a briefing at the Mount Vernon flood wall. Photos from those stops are available HERE.

Yesterday, Sen. Cantwell joined Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson for a press conference following a briefing about the impact of flooding in King County.

On Thursday, Sen. Cantwell joined Washington state's entire Congressional delegation in a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to approve Governor Ferguson's request for an expedited Emergency Declaration for the storms and flooding affecting residents statewide. Yesterday, after President Trump approved the declaration, Sen. Cantwell released this statement:

"Thank you for the fast emergency declaration! Thank you for helping respond to our infrastructure needs. Thank you for supporting our first responders. Thank you!"

An expedited Emergency Declaration will provide FEMA resources for Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Kittitas, Lewis, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, Wahkiakum, Whatcom, and Yakima counties, in addition to the Samish Indian Nation and Tribal nations within the affected counties. This includes federal funding and assets to remove debris and provide medical care, transportation assistance, and search and rescue services.

Sen. Cantwell is continuing to work with the National Weather Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, FEMA, the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other federal agencies to ensure our communities have emergency management resources and will be able to recover.

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