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Goshen – In a press conference held at the Orange County Executive’s Office, County Executive Edward A. Diana presented the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) latest version of their damage assessment report of the Orange County Government Center.

“As I’ve said from the outset, it was premature to provide the first report Orange County received from FEMA because it was an initial report – still subject to review, response, reconciliation, and negotiation. The initial report, and, in fact, this latest report, had nothing to do with the vote on the building earlier this month because there was no money tied to it. We will not count on any money from FEMA or our insurance company as we consider how to proceed with the Government Center,” said the County Executive.

Moving on to compare the two FEMA reports, Mr. Diana said, “Allow me to compare the initial report we received from FEMA with the report FEMA provided yesterday - not only does the new report include an additional $29,980 of recommended funding, it includes 508 pages of additional findings. It seems abundantly clear to me that the original report was in no way a final report.”

“Clearly, recovering from last summer’s storms is a long and complicated process and far from over. We will continue to work with our insurance company. We will continue to follow the FEMA process. Our goal is to avoid having to pursue an appeal which can take months - even years. There are people still dealing with claims from Hurricane Katrina which was seven years ago,” said the County Executive.

Holding the two reports side by side, Mr. Diana said, “Take another look at these reports - you can’t argue with the facts - or what you can see with your own eyes - significant additional work was necessary to prepare this latest FEMA report.”