Gov. Kelly Ayotte has requested that President Trump issue a major disaster declaration for the state and provide federal emergency assistance for damage that occurred from severe storms and extreme flooding on June 10th and 11th of this year.
Gov. Ayotte requested over $3 million for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and rebuilding damaged roads and bridges around Carroll County, where the rainfall and flooding was the most extreme.
She also requested that Carroll County be part of the Hazard Mitigation Grant program to secure funds for projects to help adapt to future flooding events.
Carroll County received 2 to 5 inches of rainfall, and rain fell at rates as high as 4 inches per hour during the storms in June, according to the National Weather Service data cited in the report. This weather led to “rapid and severe flash flooding.” Climate change increases the risk of flooding in the Northeastern U.S.
The state has declared major disasters in the wake of flash flooding many times in the past few years. The “recurrence of significant damages so soon afterward” these prior disasters has strained local budgets, Ayotte said in the disaster declaration request.
In Madison, for example, the June flooding washed out some of the same roads that were damaged in 2023.
Long-term recovery in the region is also expected to be a challenge, according to the request. New Hampshire weather limits the “construction window,” and there is a “lack of available contractors with capacity to complete repairs.”
To make things more complicated, permits, historical and environmental review processes, and the technical complexity of repairs will require large damage sites to seek recovery construction work across multiple “construction seasons.”
In the report, Ayotte noted that, “New Hampshire's municipal revenue system further constrains the County's ability to recover.” She argues towns that rely nearly entirely on residential property taxes for funding have “limited fiscal flexibility to absorb unexpected infrastructure losses of this scale.”
This is the state’s first disaster declaration of the year.
