NY State to get $2.1B more in Sandy aid

More than $2 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund homeowners' and businesses' recovery from superstorm Sandy is on its way to New York State, federal and state officials said Wednesday.

The $2.097 billion in disaster recovery funding is headed to the counties affected by the storm, which struck Oct. 29, 2012, and destroyed 300,000 homes statewide. Most of the money will come to Long Island, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, in accordance with the state's action plan released in April.

That plan calls for at least 80 percent of all HUD funding to go to Long Island and Rockland County.

A formal announcement of the second round of funding is scheduled for next week.

"It's a very generous sum that will allow us to rebuild just about all of the homes that need help," Schumer said. "Both reimburse those who have already laid out money, or those who are going to need it in the future."

HUD made the money available through its Community Development Block Grant program. CDBG disaster recovery funding gives grantees like New York State flexibility in deciding how to use the money to meet "unmet needs." The assistance follows immediate disaster funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration, other federal assistance and private insurance.

The state had to apply for this second round of funding.

"New York State has been working around the clock to deliver federal funding to communities impacted by Sandy in Long Island and around the state as well as areas still recovering from Irene and Lee," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said. "This next installment of federal aid allows the state to move forward with building back our infrastructure and communities better than ever before."

Schumer couldn't provide a breakdown for how much money Nassau and Suffolk counties would get in the second round of funding.

In the spring, HUD gave New York State an initial $1.71 billion. New York City received $1.77 billion in separate funding from HUD. It is not clear how much New York City will be receiving this time. Both allocations come from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013. The legislation authorized $60 billion in federal money for Sandy disaster recovery.

A total of $16 billion of the Sandy recovery fund was put into HUD's CDBG program.

"We designed the CDBG program to be very flexible," Schumer said. "It's also the money we need for infrastructure -- things like hardening Ocean Parkway, making sure it gets the proper permanent fix and meeting any outstanding costs that FEMA may not be prepared to reimburse for the City of Long Beach boardwalk -- if the state wishes to prioritize those projects -- and I believe they will."

The governor's plans for spending the money include funding an infrastructure bank, planning grants for development of Community Redevelopment Zones, home elevations, buyouts and money to spur economic development in areas hardest hit by Sandy on Long Island.

Schumer said FEMA and Long Beach had been in negotiation on reimbursement for the boardwalk and that FEMA had been reluctant to reimburse the cost of the durable hardwood from South America selected for the job and the protective wave wall.

"There will be more than enough money to cover that under this allocation of HUD money," the senator said.