Sea Cliff: Sandy Cost Will Double Irene's

The Village of Sea Cliff may have to bear some of Hurricane Sandy's incurred costs as available federal funds are expected to be stretched thin, according to the Village.

Those costs are expected to more than double the $44,000 incurred after Tropical Storm Irene, said village administrator John Mirando at the village board's meeting Monday.

Mayor Bruce Kennedy said the impending federal fiscal cliff may be one factor in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's dispensing of reimbursement dollars.

"They don't want to make promises they can't fulfill," he said. There is much more need from municipalities affected by the storm than there was with Irene, so recovering funds already looks to be more challenging, Kennedy said.

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"After Irene, we submitted such a detailed report to FEMA that we recovered all of the money we spent," he said, but meetings with FEMA officials this time around produced longer lists of "cans" and "cant's."

Mirando said Sandy-related costs were primarily for labor. The Village's 10 sanitation and Department of Public Works employees worked long hours, and a tree crew had to be contracted. Shipping fees for the more than 100 tons of tree debris that was shipped off added to the price tag, as well as 75 tons of food discarded due to power outages.

That accounts for most of the storm's impact on the Village, Mirando said, although he noted that a handful of homes, not more than a dozen, were damaged by flooding.

The Village announced it will extend its period for leaf pickups until Dec. 21 due to the hurricane's effects.

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