NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Almost a dozen counties across the state are getting financial aid following December's arctic blast. It caused people all over Tennessee to lose power, some for several days.
The aid comes from FEMA’s Public Assistance program, which allows eligible counties to get reimbursed for their response efforts.
There are eleven counties included in the Major Disaster Declaration: Coffee, Davidson, Maury, Perry and Putnam are the ones impacted in Middle Tennessee.
The financial program aims to bring much-needed relief to the jurisdictions that were heavily affected. They can get reimbursed for emergency response measures and the repair and replacement of disaster-damaged facilities and infrastructure.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency says more than 306,000 people lost power during the December storm during its peak. It also caused a lot of damage to homes with burst pipes.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has been undergoing internal reviews to understand what went wrong and how to prevent it.
This storm was the first time in the authority's 90-year history that targeted outages had to happen.
