One year ago, a bomb cyclone ripped through parts of Washington.
The storm uprooted trees, smashed through houses, broke fences, and killed at least two people.
In Lynnwood, a woman died when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, South County Fire said in a statement.
In Bellevue, a tree fell on a home and killed a woman, fire officials said.
The number of power outage reports in Washington fluctuated wildly the first evening, but steadily declined to about 460,000 by the next afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. More than a dozen schools were closed in Seattle alone. At the time, Seattle City Light called it the largest outage since 2006.
Approximately 600 homes and businesses were damaged when all was said and done.
The storm also caused extensive damage to public utilities and electrical systems.
According to the governor’s office, damages and the cost of repairs exceeded $34 million for public property.
King County’s share of the damages was $14.7 million.
In January, the governor signed a proclamation – declaring a state emergency. The proclamation unlocked $1 million in state funding for recovery.
The governor’s office also applied for federal disaster relief funds. Three months later, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responded, denying the application without explanation.
Washington filed an appeal, but that was also denied.
The two-paragraph letter said a thorough review reaffirmed the original decision that federal aid was ‘not warranted.’ No reasons are given.
Federal funding typically reimburses at least three-quarters of eligible costs from disasters.