Exclusive of Infrastructure, "Sandy" Costs Town $500K-$600K

Superstorm Sandy, which hit Clinton at the end of October last year, will cost the town, the state and the country lots and lots of money.

Early damage estimates from Forbes Magazine put Sandy’s cost in the range of $30-$50 billion. That changed quickly to $42 billion for the state of New York and $30 billion for the state of New Jersey according to Thinkprogress.org.

Just days after the storm made landfall, the Clinton Board of Selectmen (BOS) created a $1 million Sandy Fund from undesignated town funds.

"This was a fund set up to deal with emergencies so we could proceed with repairs," said Director of Public Works Peter Neff, whose department was instrumental in the clean up efforts of both Superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene (Aug. 28, 2011).

Neff is also leading the task of submitting the town's paperwork and figures to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for reimbursement.

For example, the costs incurred by the town for Tropical Storm Irene were estimated at $1.45 million of which approximately $1.02 million will be/were reimbursed by FEMA.

So far, said Neff, the town has submitted all paperwork on preliminary projects with estimates of long-range projects.  They are getting ready to submit the costs for the generator, equipment, overtime, debris cleanup, emergency operations, and bulky waste.

"This is exclusive of infrastructure work," said Neff.

Long term work includes repairs to many of the town's storm drains, the town marina, The Causeway and Beach Park Road.

Costs are estimated at $500,000 to $600,000 said Neff, exclusive of the long-term infrastructure projects noted above.  Most of these costs are reimbursable by FEMA back to the town.