Grants to disaster victims.

(a) Whenever the President, at the request of the governor, has declared a major disaster to exist in this state, the governor may (1) upon the governor's determination that financial assistance is essential to meet disaster-related necessary expenses or serious needs of individuals or families adversely affected by a major disaster that cannot be otherwise adequately met from other means of assistance, accept a grant by the federal government to fund that financial assistance, subject to the terms and conditions that may be imposed upon the grant;

(2) enter into an agreement with the federal government, or any officer or agency of it, pledging the state to participate in the funding of the financial assistance authorized in (1) of this subsection, in an amount not to exceed 25 percent of the assistance and, if state funds are not otherwise available to the governor, to accept an advance of the state's share from the federal government to be repaid when the state is able to do so.

(b) The governor is authorized to make financial grants to an individual or family to meet disaster-related necessary expenses or serious needs of individuals or families adversely affected by the disaster that cannot otherwise adequately be met from other means of assistance. The governor may make a grant to an individual and family under this subsection as follows: (1) when the President declares a major disaster, the governor may make a grant of an amount whose total of federal and state shares does not exceed the maximum amount authorized by 42 U.S.C. 5174(h) for grants payable to individuals and families;

(2) when the President does not declare a major disaster but the governor declares a disaster emergency, the governor may make a grant of an amount not to exceed one-half of the maximum grant amount established under (1) of this subsection.

(c) [Repealed, § 18 ch 178 SLA 1990.] (d) An individual or family that is a unit owner may use a grant made to the unit owner under (b)(2) of this section to meet the unit's common expense liability that is associated with the disaster. In this subsection, “common expense liability,” “unit,” and “unit owner” have the meanings given in AS 34.08.990 .