President Bush has approved a federal disaster declaration for South Florida… it includes Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and—yes—Collier County. Collier has experienced gusty winds, some rain, and spotty power outages. But, overall, emergency managers say they’re grateful Hurricane Rita took a more southerly route. Still, director of Collier County’s Bureau of Emergency Services, Dan Summers, says the disaster declaration is appropriate…

“Under the Stafford Act, in which the president signed the declaration, contiguous counties are approved. The other part of that disaster declaration—as a planning mechanism—is that Collier County could be available to any host sheltering, if that became necessary. Also the fact that Collier County has provided some aid resources already to Monroe. So, it’s is certainly appropriate.”

The declaration means any costs Collier County incurs—related to Rita—can be more easily reimbursed by FEMA.