Connecticut abusing disaster declaration?

For the past several weeks, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has been sending press releases to the media regarding the heavy rains that hit Connecticut in March and caused significant damage for residents and businesses in southern Connecticut. The governor has seemed proud to announce the affected region has been declared a major disaster area and that anyone with damage should call the state for assistance.

The major disaster declaration was initially rejected by President Barack Obama, but Rell lobbied hard for the declaration, announcing last month that the designation had come through. In the meantime, far more significant disasters have happened across the country, including major flooding in Tennessee that carried whole farmhouses down rivers and the horrendous oil drilling accident in the Gulf of Mexico, which stands to threaten ecosystems along thousands of miles of coastline.

Rell’s most recent communication about the flooding in Connecticut is another call to constituents to take advantage of federal funds. Residents and business owners are still being urged to call 211 and report their damages, more than two months after the rainstorms. Rell tells people to call even if they’ve called before, to make sure there is a record of the request.

There are two obvious problems. First, if someone still hasn’t called for assistance several weeks after an incident, it’s hard to imagine how the event qualifies as a major disaster. Second, telling people to keep calling for assistance opens the door to waste, fraud and abuse.

During difficult economic times, it is understandable that the governor wants to bring money to Connecticut any way she can, but the continued prodding of residents and business owners to beg for federal assistance does not seem in line with the Republican ideal of fiscal responsibility. While southern Connecticut is dealing with flooded basements and a few washed-out roads, a true disaster is happening in the Gulf, where 11 oil workers were killed and the entire fishing industry is in peril. The economic impact to the nation, including Connecticut, could be severe.

Rell may relish in the fact that she successfully earned a major disaster declaration for southern Connecticut towns, but for the rest of the country, the declaration is an insult and an embarrassment. Connecticut shouldn’t be abusing the major disaster declaration just because the state is fiscally mismanaged and strapped for cash. Those who are still on the fence about calling for federal assistance should put the phone down and offer help to someone who really needs it.