Obama Declares Lancaster County An Emergency Area: What It Means

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With thousands still without power, President Barack Obama on Thursday declared a state of emergency in Lancaster and six other Pennsylvania counties.

The declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bring resources to the clean-up efforts.

While local officials were still unclear about the extent of federal aid on Thursday afternoon, a FEMA spokesman said the first tangible result will likely come to the county in the form of gas-powered generators.

Peter Herrick, of Philadelphia-based FEMA Region III, said federal emergency management officials were talking to their counterparts at the state level to determine what equipment is needed.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/obama-declares-lancaster-county-an-emergency-area-what-it-means/article_851cb56a-8f60-11e3-8d16-0017a43b2370.html

Harrisburg To Get A Record $5 Million For Fire Protection For Capitol Complex

Harrisburg will receive full compensation from the state for providing fire protection and emergency services to the 40 tax-exempt state buildings located in the Capitol complex in the 2013-14 state budget making its way through the General Assembly.

Sen. Rob Teplitz, D-Dauphin County, applauded the funding that he along with state Rep. Patty Kim, D-Harrisburg, and Harrisburg’s city receiver Gen. William Lynch fought to get included in the $28.4 billion spending plan.

Despite that, Teplitz voted against the budget plan, which passed the Senate by a 33-17 vote. Democratic senators lambasted the plan for being too light on education and human service spending.

This amount going to Harrisburg exceeds the $2.5 million that Gov. Tom Corbett had proposed in his budget and what Teplitz called “the abysmal $496,000” in the House-passed budget.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/06/harrisburg_to_get_a_historic_5.html#incart_maj-story-1