HARRISBURG, PA — A long-time legislative goal of Sen. Lisa Baker (R-20) moved closer to reality with the Pennsylvania Senate’s unanimous passage recently of legislation to create a state disaster-assistance program. Similar to programs in more than 20 other states, her initiative would provide grants to county and municipal governments suffering from flash floods, tornadoes and other localized disasters.

“In a small community, losses can far exceed means, whether the disaster affected one street or 100,” Baker said. “However, today’s disaster-assistance programs only apply when the tragedy is large enough to draw a federal declaration.”

The program would give state grants to public entities to cope with uninsured losses caused by flash floods, fires, snowstorms, tornadoes, landslides, hazardous material spills and other emergencies, but that fall below the state’s $17.5 million threshold for federal aid.

An estimated 2,500 small disasters occur in the Commonwealth each year, according to estimates from nonprofit disaster relief organizations.