Hawai'i is likely to receive more than $2.5 million in federal funding for damage caused by storms that pummeled the state in December, following President Bush's declaration yesterday of a major disaster in Hawai'i.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide 75 percent matching funds to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations to repair and replace public facilities in Hawai'i, Kaua'i and Maui counties.

The money is expected to help repair roads, bridges, utilities, schools and parks that were damaged by strong winds, high surf, flooding and mudslides Dec. 4-7. Federal funding will also be available, on a cost-sharing basis, for flood-control and other hazard mitigation projects statewide.

"Having the FEMA help is extremely important," State Civil Defense spokesman Ray Lovell said yesterday. "Otherwise, the state would have to pay everything and that could be pretty burdensome. Having this will make the work go faster."

The storm that tore through Hawai'i in December brought driving rain and winds up to 70 mph that knocked out power to thousands and forced about 100 school closures statewide.

A FEMA team will arrive in Hawai'i on Monday to meet with officials from local Civil Defense and other government agencies to determine where they will need to go and what they will need to see. They will be accompanied by Kenneth R. Tingman, who has been named the federal coordinating officer for the recovery operations.

Recovery officials will explain aid application procedures in Hawai'i at a later date, FEMA said in a news release yesterday.

Lingle requested the federal declaration on Jan. 5, after joint federal, state and local teams determined that the damage was extensive enough to warrant supplementary federal assistance.

"We were really pleased," Lovell said. "(The response) came about very quickly. ... To get this through to the White House and signed and to FEMA in that period of time is very good."

The declaration follows an announcement earlier this week from the state Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Loan Division that it will offer low-interest loans to farmers who were affected by storm damages during Dec. 4-14, 2007.