June 15, 2017
ALBANY, NY – State Senator Cathy Young (R, 57th Senate District) maintains that it’s a normal procedure for the state government to pick up the bill for storm damage, when FEMA does not. The senator says that storm damage has to be 25 million dollars, or FEMA won’t pay for it. According to senator young, there was 1.6 million dollars in storm damage costs in Allegany County, and she says that governor cuomo should come through for Allegany County, like he did for the victims of Hurricanes Sandy and Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, in other parts of the state.
Senator Young also says she’s been pushing for reimbursement for Allegany county for almost two years. “The flooding ravaged our community back in 2015,” said Senator Young. “Our local highway departments and emergency responders did an incredible job to protect against loss of life and to restore services. However, many roadways, bridges, personal property, home, businesses and municipal properties were still damaged and destroyed, creating serious costs for repairs. As a result, communities suffered a significant financial burden in their local budgets from which they are still trying to recover.”
“The state has a history of assuming the costs incurred by municipalities when the damage does not meet the requirements for federal aid through FEMA. This has been done for other areas of the state such as the victims of Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee, and the same should be done now for our rural communities whose limited budgets aren’t able to address these types of extraordinary needs while also continuing to provide regularly scheduled work and services. Two years later, we continue our efforts, and throughout the entire 2017 legislative session, I have again appealed to the Governor for this relief,” she added.
Sen. Young says that in Allegany County, the damage to municipal property, including road washouts and damaged drainage and culvert systems totaled $1,600,840. Chautauqua County also suffered significant damage across multiple municipalities, including damage to drainage and culvert systems, road washouts, and damage to traffic control devices which totaled $4,332,265.
“The state has the financial means to assume these one-time, unexpected costs, which amount to only about $6.9 million. We can and should provide this assistance. I strongly urge Governor Cuomo and the Assembly Majority to join Assemblymen Goodell and Giglio in standing up for our rural communities, so that we can preserve the best quality of life for area residents,” Senator Young said.
