CLEANING UP
Two months after Isaias, FEMA funds to arrive — maybe
STAMFORD — From the start, the odds that the city would pick up tree debris left by Tropical Storm Isaias were not good.
City crews usually collect trunks and limbs after acts of Mother Nature but, by Aug. 4, when Isaias struck, officials were grappling with budget cuts brought on by COVID-19.
Not only was there little money for the costly work of cutting down, chopping up, collecting and hauling away damaged trees, but a number of city employees who handle cleanup had been laid off.
So right after the storm blew away Mayor David Martin announced that he had neither the money nor the
manpower to clean the mess up, and residents were on their own.
The only hope, Martin said, was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might come through with disaster-relief funding.
Nearly two months later, that has happened. Or maybe not. Members of the Board of Representatives’ Fiscal Committee this week approved a FEMA grant of more than $305,000 to haul away debris.
But the city doesn’t yet have the money. Getting it depends on whether FEMA approves Gov. Ned Lamont’s request for a disaster declaration for Connecticut.
And that depends on how much damage Connecticut’s municipalities document for FEMA, and whether FEMA accepts the costs they submit.
Martin made his application shortly after the storm, according to Fiscal Committee documents, but other municipalities have straggled, slowing FEMA’s decision, the administration has said.
There’s more.
Since FEMA reimburses municipalities for 75 percent of storm cleanup costs, the Fiscal Committee also approved nearly $76,300 in city cleanup money, or Stamford’s 25 percent share of the total cost.
It’s all quite fuzzy, said Rep. Susan Nabel, a Democrat from District 20, North Stamford, a wooded neighborhood that took a big hit during Isaias.
“We will not appropriate the city money unless we get the federal grant. And we don’t know if we’ll get the grant,” Nabel said “So basically it’s all hypothetical.”
For people who paid for debris removal themselves, however, it’s altogether real.
“All of this has promoted a lot of soul-searching in me because after the storm I walked up and down my district and told people, ‘We are trying to get FEMA money. We really should get FEMA money and we think we will,’” Nabel said. “I had no idea it would drag on this long.” It’s about two months since Isaias hit, leaving 9,000 Stamford homes and businesses without power – 15 percent of Eversource customers in the city — some for more than a week.
Hopes for FEMA money eventually ran out, Nabel said.
“Many people in my district forked out their own money to get big tree trunks and branches out of the way,” Nabel said. “North Stamford probably had it worse than most other places because we have more trees and more trees that are older. The cases I am most familiar with involve big trees that came up by the roots and keeled over.”
Tree removal can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. By the time FEMA, if it chooses, releases money to the state and the state disperses it to municipalities, the mess will be mostly gone, Nabel said.
During this week’s Fiscal Committee meeting she asked Director of Operations Mark McGrath whether the city will still get the $305,000 originally requested.
“No, because the total cost will go down,” McGrath said. “FEMA will pick up 75 percent of whatever the bill is.”
Less mess, less money, Nabel said later.
“If there were 50 places that had to be cleaned up and now there are 15, we submit the costs for the 15,” she said. How did things go so backwards?
“I would start with Eversource. They did a bad job,” Nabel said. “After that I would say that if the city had been at full manpower, there might have been more city crews available.”
Eversource’s response to the storm has been derided statewide and is on the agenda of a special session of the Connecticut legislature that begins Tuesday
Martin’s administration has said that Eversource did not have Make Safe crews in Stamford until four or five days after the storm. Such crews ensure downed lines in branches are not powered so tree crews can begin the work of removal.
“Then when Eversource got here, they were not cautious about where they put debris,” Nabel said. “In once case in my district they left huge trunks in the car lane on a curvy road and put caution tape around it.”
Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said utility workers got here earlier than that.
“Crews doing ‘make safe’ work were on the job in Stamford within 24 hours of the storm hitting the area,” Gross said.
During power restoration, tree crews move quickly “so the line workers can make repairs and restore power” as soon as possible, he said. “In many cases, that means the tree crews are forced to leave behind the trees and branches they cut down.”
Eversource continues to do tree cleanup “poststorm,” Gross said.
During the committee meeting McGrath said the state is close to obtaining a disaster declaration from FEMA. Director of Administration Sandy Dennies said the city plans to hire back, temporarily, some of the laid-off city workers to do the remaining cleanup.
“In my district we’re pretty used to being without power,” Nabel said. “Many have invested in generators. Now they are paying for cleanup.”