Hurricane relief

The Rio Grande Valley has been declared a federal disaster area but only to assist local governments.

Patricia Brach, a public affairs officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that at this point, only cities and counties are eligible for assistance to reimburse them for "emergency protective measures" in preparation for Hurricane Dolly.

Those expenses include extra police, firefighters, public works employees, sandbags, search-and-rescue teams and other steps that the cities took to prepare for the storm.

Brach said the next stepis that damage assessment teams will be sent to the Valley to see the extent of the storm damage.

Those teams are made up of representatives from the state department of emergency management, FEMA, the federal Small Business Administration and the local emergency management officer, she said.

With the local emergency management officer as a guide, Brach said, the officials will view damage in the city and make a recommendation on whether further assistance is needed from FEMA.

"It's a normal process," she said. "If (the damage) is beyond the capabilities of the local and state (governments), that's when the federal government comes in."

The damage assessment teams were already en route to the Valley on Thursday afternoon, said Robert Alvey, a FEMA external affairs officer and member of the advance incident management team deployed to Brownsville.

Alvey said South Texas counties were still in the disaster "response" mode Thursday afternoon and the assessments wouldn't begin until the counties give the go-ahead, he said.

"The damage assessments won't begin until the counties know that all of their citizens are safe and accounted for and they know that they can safely conduct the assessments," Alvey said.

He said FEMA was sending teams to Texas as early as Monday in anticipation of the hurricane. Advance FEMA representatives began arriving in the Valley as early as Tuesday afternoon, he said.

Individuals should contact their local emergency management officers to report significant storm-related damage so that the assessment team can visit those locations.

Brach said that persons with storm damage should photograph the damage and save expenses they incur, as proof of hardships from the hurricane.

n Harlingen emergency management coordinator Fire Chief Michael Rinaldi said that he will announce contact information at a later date because he was still involved with the city's search-and-rescue and other hurricane response.

n In Willacy County, residents can contact the county's Emergency Operations Center to request a damage assessment team inspect damages, said Frank Torres, the county's emergency management coordinator.

"They should let us know as soon as possible if they've got damage," Torres said.

Residents can contact the center at 547 W. Hidalgo Ave. in Raymondville or call 956-689-1427.

n San Benito City Manager Victor Treviño said the city is waiting to hear from the FEMA so officials can begin assessing the damage.

"We need them to contact us," he said.