Levelland council extends disaster declaration after FEMA-funded storm recovery update

City officials updated the Levelland City Council on recovery from the May 29 storm, outlining FEMA individual and public assistance, debris removal, and volunteer-hour in-kind matches, then approved an extension of the city's disaster declaration.

Cole (city recovery lead) summarized FEMA activity: about 1,577 individual registrations with 1,549 validated, roughly 1,179 on-site inspections and about $5,201,371.79 paid through individual assistance categories cited on the record; he also said total individual-level funds for the community exceeded $8 million when other programs were counted. Housing repair assistance and rental assistance totals were read from FEMA records during the update.

On the public-assistance side, staff listed eight projects for the city, including a debris-removal project, equipment repairs at the wastewater treatment facility (approx. $12,700) and a communications-tower project that may require tower replacement. Cole said the city documented 2,028 volunteer hours valued at $19.58 per hour, producing an in-kind match of $40,005.96 to offset FEMA's 80/20 match requirement.

After the update, the council unanimously approved Resolution 2024-36 extending the May 29, 2024 disaster declaration and the continued activation of the city emergency management plan to give staff time to complete burn-site scheduling and close out FEMA projects.

Staff said they expect to finish debris work and, if necessary, request extensions from TCEQ for temporary burn site operations. Recovery officials also said they would finalize invoices and FEMA project paperwork in the coming months.