Morris and seven other northern counties were included in the request; the state estimated more than $100 million in costs after February’s deadly storm.
TRENTON, N.J. FEMA has rejected New Jersey’s appeal for a major disaster declaration after the Feb. 22 and 23 winter storm, leaving the state and local governments without the Public Assistance and statewide hazard-mitigation funding sought in the application.
New Jersey originally applied on April 7, and the request was denied on July 2. Gov. Mikie Sherrill and U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim announced the appeal’s rejection on Sept. 3. A final denial letter or a detailed FEMA explanation was not publicly available as of Sept. 4.
The request covered Public Assistance, including snow assistance, in 19 counties: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset and Union. The northern counties were Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union. The state also sought Hazard Mitigation assistance statewide.
This was a request to reimburse eligible government and certain nonprofit costs, such as snow and debris removal, emergency protective work and repairs to public facilities. It was not an application for direct household disaster payments. FEMA describes Public Assistance as funding for community response and public-infrastructure recovery.
In a July 31 letter supporting the appeal, members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation said about 24 inches of snow fell in less than 24 hours across eastern and central New Jersey. They reported 12 weather-related deaths, outages affecting 127,230 customers, 544 crashes and 1,518 motor-vehicle assists. The letter said state emergency officials expected total disaster costs to exceed $100 million.
E&E News reported after the initial denial that FEMA had documented $84.4 million in eligible New Jersey damage, compared with an approximately $18.5 million statewide threshold. Crossing that threshold does not automatically compel a declaration. FEMA told the publication that snowstorm damage must be genuinely extraordinary and said East Coast states are generally expected to manage major snowstorms independently.
Sherrill, Booker and Kim accused the Trump administration of making the decision for political reasons. Their statements did not provide evidence beyond comparisons with other state decisions and FEMA’s damage findings. When the initial request was denied in July, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told E&E News there was no politicization and said the president was applying a more rigorous review. The administration’s response to the final appeal was not available in the reviewed public material.
The rejection means the requested federal reimbursement is unavailable unless the decision changes through another action. Neither the state nor FEMA has published a county-by-county allocation showing how much of the eligible cost belongs to Morris County or any individual municipality.