PARIS – The county will receive nearly $2 million in funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for damages incurred in the Patriots Day storm.

As of Monday afternoon, 26 towns have filed for public assistance with damage estimates ranging from $1,400 to $485,000. The total damage estimates for the county amounted to $2,561,250. There were also four individual assistance requests that totaled $43,980.

Hiram and Porter were hardest hit by the storm, claiming $485,000 and $340,000 in damage respectively. Paris claimed $206,000 and Buckfield, Denmark, Dixfield, Hartford, Otisfield, Norway, Sumner, and Waterford each claimed more than $100,000 in damages.

Scott Parker, director of the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency, said the amounts are estimates and he expects them to change.

FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of the repair costs, while the state will pay 15 percent of the repairs. Towns will pay the remaining 10 percent of their individual repair costs.

Parker said a county must reach a minimum threshold under FEMA guidelines to qualify for disaster funds. The county damage must be equal to or greater than the population multiplied by $3.50. Parker said Oxford County’s threshold is about $166,000.

A team made up of inspectors from FEMA and the Maine Emergency Management Agency has already determined that the county qualifies for the aid. President Bush must make an executive declaration of disaster before the federal funds can be allocated.

“It’s kind of a rubber stamp,” said Parker. “It’s going to happen.”

Parker said damage was mostly limited to roads, and that the county’s infrastructure escaped serious damage.

He expects a team of FEMA inspectors to arrive 60 to 90 days after the presidential decree.

The inspectors will contribute the funds after approving the paperwork showing the costs of the repairs.

Parker said FEMA intends that the funds be used to improve roads and other public property damaged by the nor’easter so that they can better weather the next storm.