Officials say a federal disaster declaration for 13 Oklahoma counties offers welcome relief as efforts to recover from late March flooding and assess damage continues.

Michelann Ooten, an Oklahoma Emergency Management spokeswoman, said the declaration provides for public assistance for governmental entities forced to deal with infrastructural damage due to storms that occurred between March 17-23. Most of the damage reported, Ooten said, involved roads and bridges.

The disaster declaration, issued Monday by President Bush, authorizes federal assistance for 13 Oklahoma counties, including Adair, Haskell, McIntosh, Muskogee and Sequoyah counties. Other counties included in the declaration are Hughes, Latimer, Mayes, McCurtain, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Pittsburg and Pushmataha counties.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, public assistance includes federal funding for not less than 75 percent of the costs to:

• Repair or replace public infrastructure such as roads, bridges, utilities, buildings, schools, recreational areas and similar publicly owned property, as well as certain private non-profit organizations engaged in community service activities.

• Remove debris from public areas and for emergency measures taken to save lives and protect property and public health.

• Assist with hazard mitigation projects undertaken by state and local governments to prevent or reduce long-term risk to life and property as a result of natural disasters.

The disaster declaration does not include federal assistance for individuals who may have sustained storm-related losses.

Muskogee County Commissioner Ronnie Pevehouse, District 2, said the declaration is welcome news. Pevehouse said the March thunderstorms caused nearly $100,000 in damage to roads and bridges in his district.

March flooding, Pevehouse said, washed out two bridges, heavily damaged two low-water structures, and washed away several miles of road materials.

“This is going to be a tremendous help to us,” Pevehouse said. “Without that help, it would have been a really long process to get those roads back into the same shape they were before it rained.”

Pevehouse said road crews should be able to complete those repairs in about six to nine months. Without federal assistance, Pevehouse said, it could have taken about a year and a half to make the necessary repairs.

Ooten said preliminary damage assessments for the March thunderstorms are ongoing. State and federal officials, Ooten said, also are collecting storm damage information for significant weather events reported in April.

“We have documented about $5.3 million worth of damage caused by March flooding alone,” Ooten said. “We are continuing to look at other counties. If your county had damage but was not included in this list, it could be added later.”

Preliminary damage assessment teams, Ooten said, visited the counties hit hardest first in order to determine whether the state could meet the threshold level required for federal assistance. Assessment efforts in some counties, Ooten said, were thwarted earlier by high water levels that were slow to recede.