President Trump declared today that an emergency exists in the State of Alabama. For this reason, he ordered Federal assistance to supplement “State, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Irma beginning on September 8, 2017, and continuing.”

As the White House media advisory stated:

The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.  This action will help alleviate the hardship and suffering that the emergency may inflict on the local population, and provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property, and ensure public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in 67 counties and the Poarch Creek Indian Tribe in the State of Alabama.

FEMA’s job is to “identify, mobilize, and provide, at its discretion, equipment, and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.  Emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.”