Hevesi Says Individual Storm Relief Funds Unlikely

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi said he's not expecting individual reimbursement assistance from the federal government at a Forest Hills Civic Association meeting on Oct. 12. Forest Hills residents have been waiting for word on the federal disaster funds since the tornado and macroburst struck the area on Sept. 16.

The individual assistance grants are just one of two different types of reimbursements for which the affected area could qualify.

"My gut says we'll get public assistance and we'll reimburse the public, but I'm not hopeful that we'll get individual assistance," Hevesi said. "There are two types of money: number one is public assistance — that's a pot of money that's likely to come. The other pot of money that's — my guess — is unlikely to come is individual assistance."

The individual assistance funds, which would be used to help homeowners pay for damages that insurance companies refuse to reimburse for.

While Hevesi said he is expecting public matching funds — the kind that would help offset street and public utility repairs — he was "not hopeful" that individual assistance funds would be made available. Individual assistance funds are designed to help cover a gap in insurance coverage for home and car owners.

Hevesi said that destruction and property damage values from the storm would have to reach a certain threshold, one he said that the state and city believe was hit, but that the federal government is likely to refuse.

At a town hall meeting last month, New York City Office of Emergency Management head Joseph Bruno said that the damage from the storm was close, but likely just short of the threshold needed to secure individual funds. The attitude at the end of September was "wait and see."

After touring the affected parts of the city with federal and city officials, the state emergency management office said the storm's damage estimate was over $27 million, over the roughly $25 million in damages needed to qualify for public funds. Individual assistance, however, doesn't weigh in on the same scale.

Bruno said at the September town hall meeting that roughly 100 homes and structures would have to be destroyed or rendered unusable by the storm to qualify for individual assistance. That number was not met.

At this point, Hevesi said, it's incumbent on the current administration to decide whether the city gets relief funds.

"It's up to president Obama to come through with that money," Hevesi said. "We'll do as much as we can to put pressure on him, but we will see."