FEMA approves grants for LI storm cleanup

More than 1,800 tons of uprooted trees and their lost limbs littered Smithtown's roads after Irene stormed through the region last August, leaving a $1.3 million cleanup bill for the town in its wake. Brookhaven had it worse, with more than 16,894 tons of debris.

Though Irene had been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm when it made landfall on Long Island, its high winds and fierce rain toppled trees and power lines, causing widespread damage and zapping power from about 450,000 residents -- including more than a third of the Long Island Power Authority's 1.1 million customers.

Two weeks later, heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Lee piled on more damage.

Across Long Island, communities spent about $68.2 million on recovery from the double blow of Irene and Lee, with Suffolk County's costs totaling $36 million and Nassau's $32 million, according to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office.

This week, FEMA approved a reimbursement of $4.3 million to the Town of Brookhaven for the removal of its debris, $1 million to Smithtown; and a grant of $1.7 million to Suffolk County for a similar debris removal project, all related to Irene and Lee.

Yesterday, the offices of Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), jointly announced that they had played a role Smithtown securing the money as reimbursement for costs associated with the devastating storms.

"This will go a long way toward relieving Smithtown's financial burden that they should not have to shoulder on their own," Schumer said.

"It's going to be extremely helpful to us, because we had expended that money from our budget," Smithtown Councilman Edward Wertheim said. It's "going to be very advantageous for us so we can reimburse our highway and emergency departments. It's not money we budgeted for . . . The more funding we receive, the better it is for the taxpayer."

For other eligible Long Island communities that have applied for federal aid, help is coming, according to Gillibrand's office, which said grants of unspecified amounts are expected to land on a rolling basis. In a statement, Gillibrand said she will "fight to secure all the federal funding our communities need."

Statewide, total recovery costs may surpass $1.6 billion and include roughly 15,000 separate response and recovery projects, Cuomo's office has indicated.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant typically covers 75 percent of disaster response and recovery costs. The remaining 25 percent is equally shared by the state and localities. In April, Cuomo announced that in addition to $61 million made available for the cleanup costs of 25 counties, the state would provide $8.5 million to Nassau and Suffolk counties for costs associated with Irene and Lee.

With Carl MacGowan