RSS feed source: Federal Emergency Management Agency

WASHINGTON — FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance is available to the state of Tennessee to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding from April 2-24, 2025. 

The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Dyer, Hardeman, McNairy, Montgomery, Obion and Wilson counties. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster. 

Federal funding is also available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding in Cheatham, Davidson, Decatur, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Grundy, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henry, Hickman, Lauderdale, Madison, McNairy, Obion, Perry, Stewart and Tipton counties. 

Darryl L. Dragoo has been named the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas. Additional designations may be made at a later date if warranted by the results of damage assessments. 

Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas should first file claims with their insurance providers and then apply for assistance by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621-3362 or by using the FEMA App. If you use a

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RSS feed source: Federal Emergency Management Agency

Microorganisms with extreme abilities have laid the groundwork for decades of biotechnologies from the PCR technique that enables amplification of DNA for diagnostics and drug development to the gene editing tool CRISPR, and now researchers supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation have found a trove of these microbes in a somewhat unlikely location — the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The team identified more than 450 species with over 60 different biochemical pathways to deal with pollutants and 1,171 genes that can aid in processing heavy metals, offering potential for bio-based and cheaper methods of industrial clean-up, the costs of which are estimated to be more than $645 billion.

The Gowanus Canal is a contaminated waterway in Brooklyn that has high concentrations of petrochemicals and heavy metals. The researchers, including Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis of the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, collected soil samples at 14 locations along the 1.8-mile-long canal and deep sediment core samples and analyzed them using genomic sequencing and bioinformatics. Understanding the genetic sequences and metabolic pathways of the organisms identified will allow researchers to develop faster methods of what the microbes can do naturally.

“We have seen the power of extremophiles used in medicine and industry, and this new analysis expands the biological adaptations we can harness for societal benefit,” said Joanna Shisler, program director in the NSF Directorate for Biological

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RSS feed source: Federal Emergency Management Agency

DENVER – This morning, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Forsyth Fire burning in Washington County, Utah near Pine Valley.

FEMA Region 8 approved the state’s request for a federal Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) after receiving the request Thursday night and determining that the fire threatened such destruction that it would constitute a major disaster.

At the time of the request, the Forsyth Fire was threatening more than 400 homes, which were under an evacuation order. The fire started on Thursday and has burned more than 500 acres.

The authorization makes FEMA funding available to pay 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs under an approved grant for managing, mitigating and controlling designated fires. These grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage caused by the fire.

Fire Management Assistance Grants are provided through the President’s Disaster Relief Fund and are made available by FEMA to assist in fighting fires that threaten to cause a major disaster. Eligible items can include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; mobilization and demobilization activities; and tools, materials and supplies. 

For more information on FMAGs, visit  https://www.fema.gov/fire-management-assistance-grants-program-details.

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