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HARTFORD, Conn. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Connecticut on Monday and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to "the emergency conditions" resulting from a severe snowstorm that paralyzed the state over the weekend.
The president signed the declaration Monday a day after Gov. Dannel Malloy requested federal assistance which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
The declaration will "have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population" and provide appropriate assistance to "lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in all counties in the state of Connecticut."
The earliest winter season snow and ice storm in Connecticut in decades left more than 822,000 households without power a record for the state and resulted in massive tree and power line downings.
"I have asked President Obama for federal assistance," Malloy said Sunday after he declared a state of emergency.
"Connecticut is now in the very first stages of recovering from a storm of a magnitude and at a time of year that we have never experienced before," Malloy said. "Hundreds of thousands of households are without power or heat, and damage to our electric infrastructure continues."
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