HARTFORD – The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, rejected Governor Danel Malloy‘s request to assess the extent and impact of homeowners’ crumbling basements.
FEMA rejected the request in a letter sent to Malloy on November 8. Malloy called on FEMA to help thousands of Connecticut homeowners with foundations at risk of crumbling, or even collapsing, saying the crumbling foundations should be considered a natural disaster.
“It appears that the pyrrhotite was present in the stone aggregate in the concrete which was used in these foundation,” said FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate in the letter. “While the mineral and chemical reactions may be naturally occurring, the mixing of concrete and the placing of these foundations are manmade events and do not constitute a natural catastrophe…”
Fugate said that while FEMA can’t provide disaster relief, he would make a senior liaison to help the state get assistance from other federal sources.
