WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday opened up federal aid for coastal counties and other areas of Oregon hit hard by winter storms and mudslides.

Federal funding will be available to help state and local governments repair areas damaged by severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides from Dec. 18 through Jan. 21, the White House said in a statement.

The state, 18 counties and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation are eligible for assistance, the White House said.

The counties are Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Lincoln, Linn, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook and Wheeler.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski asked Bush for the disaster declaration in January to help pay for an estimated $9 million in damages to highways and other public property.

The storms caused at least $22 million in overall damage, including private property. The president's declaration does not affect repairs to homes or businesses.

Still, a spokesman for Kulongoski said the governor was pleased and relieved to learn of the disaster declaration.

Kulongoski “sees this as a definite help to the taxpayers of Oregon,” said spokesman Lonn Hoklin. “He's eager to get the (federal) money in place so these state agencies and local governments can get their reimbursements.”

The declaration means the federal government will reimburse state and local agencies 75 percent of the money spent to fix roads, bridges and other public infrastructure, said Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

R. David Paulison, the agency's acting director, named Lee Champagne as coordinating officer for the federal recovery operations.

A series of wet, winter storms hammered the state in December and January. Mudslides closed Interstate 5 over the Siskiyou Summit south of Ashland on Dec. 30, and rising waters on Bear Creek prompted evacuation of two trailer parks in Ashland and Phoenix. The Rogue River went over its banks, flooding some homes on the outskirts of the town of Rogue River and damaging a park in Gold Hill.

Damage was heaviest in the southwestern part of the state, although it stretched from Clatsop County in northwestern Oregon to Wheeler County in the central part of the state.

Coos County suffered nearly $5 million in damages, including a broken dike that flooded about 20 homes in late December.