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Schumer, Gillibrand Announce Federal Funds for Suffolk, Long Beach, LIPA For Sandy Cleanup Costs

Written by Long Island News & PR  |  07. January 2014

Washington, DC - January 7, 2013 - Suffolk County: U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand today announced $2,311.525.73 infederal funds for Suffolk County to cover costs associated with countywide hazardous debris removal in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. This work was undertaken after the storm deposited thousands of cubic yards of sand and other debris across the county.
 
“Suffolk County was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and forcing residents to pay expensive cleanup costs would be adding insult to injury,” said Schumer. “These federal funds will go a long way towards ensuring that Suffolk County residents do not have to foot the bill for storm cleanup.”
 
“This federal funding will provide much needed relief for Suffolk County families and businesses impacted by Superstorm Sandy,” said Gillibrand. “It is critical that Long Island communities have the necessary resources on the ground to recover and rebuild.” 
 
Superstorm Sandy brought strong winds and heavy rains to the New York tri-state area, resulting in downed trees, scattered vegetative debris and other materials strewn throughout busy roadways. Debris was deposited onto public rights of ways, streets, and public access areas throughout the County that posed an immediate threat to public safety and therefore, needed to be removed. Approximately 464,154CY of vegetative debris was removed following Superstorm Sandy.
 
This funding is in addition to the $14 million in federal funds that Suffolk County Department of Public Works received in July to cover Hurricane Sandy hazardous debris removal costs.
 
Long Beach: U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand today announced $6,679,908.58infederal funds for the City of Long Beach to cover costs associated with hazardous debris removal in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. This work was undertaken after the storm deposited over 150,000 cubic yards of sand and other debris across Long Beach roads. The funds, which come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), cover 90% of costs.
 
“Long Beach was extremely hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, and forcing residents to pay expensive cleanup costs would be adding insult to injury,” said Schumer. “These federal funds will go a long way towards ensuring that Long Beach does not have to foot the bill for storm cleanup, and instead can continue to get back up on its feet.”
 
“This federal funding will provide much needed relief for Long Island families and businesses impacted by Superstorm Sandy,” said Gillibrand. “It is critical that Long Beach has the necessary resources on the ground to recover and rebuild.”
 
"Following Superstorm Sandy, this City administration was responsible for managing a monumental sand and debris removal procedure,” said Scott J. Mandel, Long Beach City Council President. “We thank Senators Schumer and Gillibrand for cutting through the bureaucracy and expediting the reimbursement process. The federal funding that we will now receive covers significant costs we incurred and is another important step towards rebuilding stronger, smarter, and safer."
 
Superstorm Sandy brought strong winds and heavy rains to the New York tri-state area, resulting in downed trees, scattered vegetative debris and other materials strewn throughout busy roadways. Debris was deposited onto public rights of ways, streets, and public access areas throughout Long Beach that posed an immediate threat to public safety and therefore, needed to be removed. In total, the City of Long Beach removed 156,664.6 cubic yards of debris generated from Hurricane Sandy, and these FEMA funds will reimburse the city for the cost of cleanup of that debris.
 
In order to clean up the debris in a timely fashion, the City of Long Beach set up Temporary Disposal Staging and Reduction Sites (TDSRS) across the city as collection points for processing. The disaster debris collected at these sites was then eventually hauled to a final disposal site.
 
These federal funds are in addition to the $19,795,669 FEMA awarded the New York State Department of Transportation in July 2013 to reimburse them for the costs of collection, removal, and disposal of debris in Long Beach that resulted from Superstorm Sandy. 
 
LIPA: U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand today announced $141,647,444.80 infederal funds for Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to be put towards reimbursement of additional line- and tree-removal crews who aided in post-Sandy cleanup and expenses associated with the effort. These crews were hired in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to assist LIPA in the massive, Island-wide cleanup and power-restoration operation.
 
 “Long Islanders already went through enough during Hurricane Sandy, and forcing them to pay expensive cleanup costs would be adding insult to injury,” said Schumer. “These federal funds will go a long way towards ensuring that Long Island ratepayers do not find themselves footing the bill for storm damage and cleanup.”
 
"Long Island took some of the very worst of Superstorm Sandy, leaving families and businesses in the dark without power and damaged roads and streets,” said Gillibrand. “It is critical that Long Island has the necessary resources on the ground to recover and rebuild."
 
According to the grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which provides the funds to New York State for it to distribute, LIPA's four divisions sustained damages to 877 overhead circuits and 149 substations during Hurricane Sandy. The extent of these damages required LIPA to bring in off-island line- and tree-removal crews to help with the repair of the damaged utility lines and substations.  These crews were contracted through in-place mutual-aid agreements, municipality mutual agreements, contracts with regional power providers, and contracts with vendors associated with line repair.
 
Roughly half of the federal funds will go towards covering the costs of the additional workers, and the other half will go towards covering expenses associated with the increased manpower such as the construction of staging areas, securing of parking lots, development of temporary housing, as well as hotel and travel costs. For example, LIPA utilized outside contractors to assemble, run, and disassemble 14 self-contained sleep base camps across Long Island, which housed a large percentage of the 10,000 linemen and tree-removal crews that were brought in to assist with cleanup.
 
The strong winds and heavy rain of Superstorm Sandy resulted in close to one million Long Islanders being without power, and these federal funds will help reimburse costs associated with restoring power across Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

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