Gov. Bev Perdue today announced that she has secured federal disaster assistance for fifteen additional counties. Those counties will be added to the federal disaster declaration in North Carolina, which enables families and business owners to seek low-interest loans or grants to help them recover from Hurricane Irene.

The counties added today are: Gates, Hertford, Johnston, Northampton, Vance, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Chowan, Duplin, Edgecombe, Martin, New Hanover, Pasquotank and Perquimans.

With today’s action, 33 counties have now been approved for individual assistance.

"Our fellow North Carolinians who were affected by this storm need to get back in their homes or reopen their businesses as quickly as possible," Perdue said. "That's why we have aggressively pressed for all of the assistance that's available to them."  

The counties previously approved for individual assistance are: Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Greene, Halifax, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Nash, Onslow, Pamlico, Pitt, Tyrrell, Warren, Washington and Wilson.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides two types of assistance. Individual assistance aids families and businesses, while public assistance helps with community recovery costs, such as clearing debris and repairing public facilities.

In the past few days, Gov. Perdue has secured public assistance for 29 counties.  That federal disaster declaration enables those counties to seek aid covering the costs of storm response, debris removal and infrastructure repairs.

Those counties are: Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell, Wayne and Wilson.