President Donald Trump approved federal emergency disaster declarations for Maryland and 11 other states on Saturday as dangerous winter conditions continue across the nation.

Gov. Wes Moore requested the federal declaration on Friday in conjunction with announcing a state of emergency.

The federal declaration enables states to access federal resources to supplement their response efforts, if needed.

“Things like that could include emergency evacuations, traffic control, emergency power support, generators for critical facilities… clearance of debris so that emergency vehicles can get to where they need to go,” explained Maryland Department of Emergency Management’s Director of Disaster Risk and Reduction Sara Bender.

Bender says the state has not yet asked for federal assistance, but she’s not ruling out the possibility with below-freezing temperatures expected to persist throughout the week.

If Maryland cannot meet the resource needs of local jurisdictions, it would first look to surrounding states for help — support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be turned to as a last resort.

“So far, we have not had to ask for any federal support. That being said, it's going to remain cold, it's going to be gusty winds today, so the threat is still there, and we do have FEMA staff on site in case that we did need to do this,” Bender said.

A FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team is stationed at the State Emergency Operations Center and is designed to deploy within two hours and arrive on scene within 12 hours of a catastrophic incident.

If federal aid is activated, local jurisdictions or the state would only be responsible for 25 percent of the cost.

As of Monday afternoon, Bender says the State Emergency Operations Center has had 16 resource requests from local jurisdictions, all of which the state has been able to fill on its own.

Despite the worst of the precipitation appearing to be over, Bender encourages Marylanders to “stay vigilant.”

“Watch out for the road conditions. With it being so cold, it may take a little bit longer. Just being careful, staying home, if they can possibly stay home, is definitely something that we're encouraging.”

WYPR’s live winter storm coverage can be found here.