Feds assess damage, state seeks answers in gas shortage

February 11, 2011

the feds are in new mexico today. federal workers arrived in the last few hours to begin assessing the damage from the natural gas crisis. we are committed to bringing you the latest information on the outages that affected tens of thousands of new mexicans. cristina rodda just talked to a fema worker who outlined the agency's plan of action. i just finished speaking to a fema representative. he tells me that starting tomorrow, crews will be out gathering information about damage caused by last week's winter storm. they'll start here in albuquerque. if your home had any damage -- take pictures and keep receipts for things like repairs and hotels. fema will not be going to individual homes... local officials will help fema gather the damage information. all information gathered will go to the governor -- and she'll send it to the president who will decide whether to free up federal money. i'll have more on fema's visit coming up tonight at six. governor susana martinez has freed up some emergency funds to help pay for the response to natural gas outages around the state. the governor signed an executive order that would allow as much as 750- thousand dollars to be used for costs incurred by state and local entities. so far. the state has received disaster declarations from 13 local governments .....and more are expected. state lawmakers prepare to tackle the natural gas crisis in a big way tomorrow - stuart dyson continues our team coverage from the the capitol " the entire state senate will meet as a committee of the whole to hear testimony from new mexico gas company officials and state regulators as well as some of the thousands of new mexicans who lost natural gas for heating during one of the worst cold snaps in recent memory." many lawmakers want to know why it took the company so long to get the gas flowing again - thousands waited in the cold for six long days - many at the capitol want to know how to avoid a repeat. " there's not much we can do about going back and trying to fix the problem - it's been remedied very slowly but it's been done - what we're trying to do now is trying to ensure that it doesn't happen again." " i think we need to know what happened and we need to know the causes before we start pointing our finger at well you know - how to we prevent this in the future." there's a split in the senate on this issue - with many democrats saying the industry needs more oversight - and many republicans saying over-regulation contributed to the problem. " the hearing is scheduled to begin at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon - members of the public who want to testify need to sign up at the senate clerk's office - at the capitol stuart dyson k-o-b eyewitness news four." so far xx claims so far 760 claims have been filed with the new mexico gas company. if you have any damage--nd would like to file a claim--- you still can. at kob-dot-com ....we've provided a link where you can download an application. and as we've said, we're committed to getting you answers as the investigation continues into the natural gas outage---- and as people across the state try to get reimbursed for damages.