Building Back, Crisfield Hopes For Federal Funding - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

CRISFIELD, Md. - Mayor P.J. Purnell admits he's exhausted, and his City, strapped, but 14 days after Superstorm Sandy unleashed her fury on Crisfield, the City is slowly picking up the pieces.

Billie Jo Chandler, a local business owner who has volunteered her time to help with the relief effort, says "It's been a really good response.  I mean the community is just overwhelmed with helping each other and pulling together."

But bags of clothes and supplies don't cover the overwhelming need for recovery dollars.

Now that the waters have receded, local leaders are waiting on the State to declare Crisfield a Disaster Area, but much like anything else, this is a numbers game.

The State of Maryland, as a whole, needs to show FEMA and the President how much help it needs.  Mayor Purnell wonders if part of the hold up is Crisfield's smaller size.

Purnell said, "Normally, the declaration is decided on a statewide basis, and Somerset was the County, other than Garrett, and as far as I know, Worcester, some, that was seriously hurt. And consequently, those numbers wouldn't be as high as they would be if say Baltimore, Annapolis, some of these areas had been damaged as well."

Crisfield is hoping to hear from FEMA sometime Tuesday, November 13. But regardless of what the federal government decides, or when, local good Samaritans, like Billie Jo, say they'll do what they have to, to help Crisfield.

"The volunteers are there either way. We just had a meeting earlier, and the volunteers are there until we can get people back into their homes," said Chandler.