Font ResizeSANTA FE - Fourteen cities and counties across New Mexico have declared disasters because of storm damage and natural-gas outages last week.
This means they can seek some of the $750,000 in state money that Gov. Susana Martinez has made available to help local governments. She signed an executive order to appropriate the money.
Those declaring a disaster were: Alamogordo, Bernalillo County, Cloudcroft, Espanola, Questa, Rio Arriba County, Santa Ana Pueblo, Ruidoso, San Felipe Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, the city of Socorro, Sunland Park, Taos County and Taos Pueblo.
Other communities likely to declare are Albuquerque, the town of Red River, Sandoval County, Socorro County, and the town of Taos, according to the governor's staff.
Damage assessment teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have begun arriving in New Mexico. They will assess the uninsured costs incurred by state and local entities.
"In order to facilitate the quickest possible recovery and reimbursement process for local governments, we have been responding to their requests and working with FEMA from day one to evaluate damages and follow necessary steps to make state and federal funds available," Martinez said.
More than 50 National Guard soldiers remained Thursday in Taos and Espanola. They were working with technicians to restore heat to homes whose owners have been away.
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich @tnmnp.com or (505)
