Patrick hopes for a speedy decision on federal disaster aid, but a FEMA official cautioned that those decisions can take time.
SPRINGFIELD – The formal request from the governor to the Obama Administration to declare Western Massachusetts a federal disaster area after the June 1 tornado was placed on the president’s desk yesterday, but the timetable for funding cleanup requests remains up in the air.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Monday said he is hopeful that Obama will make a speedy decision on his request which is needed to clear the way for communities and individuals to receive federal assistance.
Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said he would not be surprised if Obama approved the declaration as soon as today.
“We’ve crossed our T’s and dotted our I’s,” Judge said. “We expect a relatively quick turnaround.”
However, Dennis W. Pinkham, spokesman for the Boston regional office of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, said all requests for disaster assistance must be reviewed by FEMA officials before they are forwarded to the White House, and that could take some time.
“They have had so many disasters going on they have to get a second look at it,” he said.
Joplin, Mo, for example, which was hit by a deadly tornado on April 19, was not declared a federal disaster area until May 9.
Meanwhile round-the-clock details of additional police to deter looting have been largely successful, police said Monday with some exceptions.
On Friday afternoon, Springfield police arrested a man on Island Pond Road after spotting him taking things from empty houses in the section of East Forest Park that sustained heavy tornado damage.
The man, identified as David L. Rosemond age 58 of 110 Carr St. of Springfield, was charged with trespassing and larceny from a building. Police found his pickup truck packed full with lawn mowers, snow blowers, power tools and tool boxes believed looted from the neighborhood.
On Sunday, police arrested 19-year-old William Rodriguez of 115 Alden St., after officers on an anti-looting detail found him inside a condemned building on Manhattan Street taking a pair of sunglasses and an MP3 player. He was also charged with larceny from a building and trespassing.
The two arrests are among what area police say are the few cases of actual looting in the aftermath of the June 1 tornado. Although police in Springfield and area communities have all deployed additional patrols specifically to guard against looters, by and large looting has not been a problem
Springfield police have had placed additional details of 20 officers per shift dedicated to stopping looting and maintaining order in hard-hit neighborhoods, said Sgt. John Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet.
“Just because residents have had to abandon their property (since the storm), we haven’t abandoned it; We’re still there,” he said. “There’s a great opportunity for undesirable people to take advantage of someone else’s misfortune, but we’re not letting it happen.”
Monson police Sgt. James Boucher reported a few isolated incidents of looting or break-ins over the last dozen or so days and are urging residents to be vigilant and to call the police if they see anything that looks suspicious.
Brimfield Police Chief Charles T. Kuss reported “three or four” looting cases and one arrest in the days immediately after the tornado but none since.
“We have had a couple of instances where we saw them looting,” Kuss said. “Then they would disappear into the rubble and the woods.”
West Springfield Police Capt. Daniel O’Brien said there has been one looting arrest in the city’s Merrick section. “It was more junk than anything else,” he said.
West Springfield is different from other communities because it’s footprint of tornado damage is relatively compact he said.
“Our impact is much more controllable, “ O’Brien said. “We had a small area of town that we could flood with people.”
Wilbraham has had one reported case of looting, and one arrest.
On June 5, Brian J. Shapiro of 440 Soule Road, Wilbraham, was charged with larceny over $250 for taking a push lawnmower off the front porch of a tornado-damaged home on Stony Hill Road.
It was later recovered when state police stopped Shapiro’s truck.
06.09.2011 | SPRINGFIELD - Last week, a resident posted this sign outside his home on Roosevelt Avenue. The sign has since been taken down.Sgt. Daniel Carr said the department considers the arrest to be looting-related.
Looting has not been a problem, otherwise, he said. The department has additional patrols in affected areas and it seems to have helped minimize the problem, he said.
While cases of looting have been rare, a bigger problem to emerge has been the “gawkers” or people from out of the area who drive through affected areas to take photos and ooh and aah at all the damage.
Police say the gawkers are gumming up the works and trying people’s patience. They create congestion on already constricted roads, they get in the way of emergency workers, contractors and cleanup crews, and annoy neighborhood residents to no end.
“The parade of onlookers was just deafening,” said Brimfield Police Chief Charles T. Kuss, describing the heavy traffic through town on Sunday. “It was horrible; it was just sheer onlookers driving up and down.”
Delaney said it was the same in affected parts of Springfield.
“The neighbors and police that are working in the tornado areas are fed up with the gawkers,” he said. “They are getting in the way.”
Throughout portions of Western Massachusetts turned upside down by the tornado, cleanup continued while officials pinned hopes on the arrival of federal disaster relief aid.
In the request before the president, state officials were able to document the cost of damages to uninsured buildings, road and infrastructure, plus the cost of essential overtime and materials is in the vicinity of $25 million, nearly three times the minimum amount of $8.5 million for federal assistance.
In his letter sent on Saturday to the president, Patrick said 319 homes were destroyed by the tornadoes and another 600 had major damage. The estimated cost of damage in Hampden County is $23.9 million, while the Worcester County communities of Sturbridge and Southbridge had damage estimates of $378,305 and $208,006 respectively.
State and local governments would be eligible to apply for federal aid after the state receives a disaster declaration. Under the program, the federal government would pay at least 75 percent of the eligible costs for repairing or replacing public properties such as damaged roads, bridges and buildings and for removing debris. Also homeowners and renters could apply for grants to pay for temporary housing needs, low-interest federal disaster loans would also be available to homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes, and private non-profit organizations. Patrick has stimulated that Hampden County would need $12.2 million in low-interest loans for home owners and $8.3 million for businesses.
In a prepared statement, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield issued a statement calling for a quick decision by the White House.
“Having visited every city and town that was damaged during the tornadoes last week, I believe those communities and their residents are entitled to federal disaster assistance. I will
continue to urge President Obama to quickly approve this assistance so the people of western and central Massachusetts get the aid and resources they deserve,” Neal said.
Speaking to reporters outside his Statehouse office on Monday, Patrick praised people in Western and Central Massachusetts for helping each other in the wake of the deadly tornadoes.
“They are remarkably resilient,” Patrick said. “In addition to the really terrific job the agencies have done on the state, local and federal levels in coordinating and working together to meet peoples’ immediate emergency needs, neighbors have really leaned on each other, and stepped up and that’s been terrific.”
Also pitching in have been area businesses that are contributing to relief efforts, the latest being Hasbro and Friendly’s.
The Hasbro Children’s Fund, the philanthropic arm of Hasbro Inc., made a $100,000 grant to Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross on Monday.
The grant will assist the Red Cross in providing help to Western Massachusetts residents who have been impacted by the recent tornadoes that touched down in the region.
“This is a community we care deeply about,” said Brian Goldner, president and CEO of Hasbro, Inc. “We hope these funds will help the Red Cross deliver their important services to Springfield area residents impacted by this terrible disaster.”
The Wilbraham-based Friendly’s Restaurants in recent days has provided free bottled water and ice cream to several shelters, staging and command centers and schools, and offered emergency workers, police and national guardsmen free meals at Springfield locations, and delivered 150 means from its Westfield restaurants over the weekend.
The company has also announced it will make a matching amount for any contributions to the relief effort by employees at 140 Friendly’s restaurants in the Springfield, Boston and Hartford areas.
In West Springfield, representatives of state Department of Housing and Community Development, Social Security and the state Division of Employment and Training visited the 91 people staying emergency shelter at the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds.
Mayor Edward J. Gibson said the top priority is helping displaced tornado victims find homes. Health Director Jeanne Galloway, “We’re still trying to get them housing. There, the biggest roadblock is the lack of housing stock in town and in the region,”
She said they are trying to keep West Springfield residents in West Springfield.
The health official said volunteers are still needed at the shelter, especially people with medical training. People who want to help staff it may volunteer through accessing the Medical Reserve Corps site at http://www.region4a—mrc.org
The West Springfield Park and Recreation Department had collected about $4,000 in funds to donate to tornado victims, according to Park and Recreation Director Victoria Conner. She said people may make out checks to Town of West Springfield-Tornado Relief Fund and either mail or bring them to her office in the municipal building. Forms for people who want to indicate how their donations should be used are available in her office.
People can also volunteer or get information through the town’s website at www.west-springfield.ma.us
West Springfield has designated its Office of Community Development as the clearinghouse for business and industries wanting to donate goods and services to the relief effort. Businesses and industries needing help may also contact the office apply for help and will be matched up with donors, Community Development Director Joseph Laplante said. A cell phone at (718) 938-6982 will be monitored 24 hours a day to accept calls.
The Rotary Club of West Springfield stepped up to the plate Saturday and treated those staying in the city’s shelter to free food at West Side’s Taste of the Valley. The School Department provided transportation.
Robinson State Park in Agawam, where the tornado downed about 250 trees, will remain closed until cleanup can be accomplished, according to S.J. Port, press secretary for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. Port said crews have restored power at the park and have started work on the trees.
The town of Monson will update response and recovery efforts at a tornado information meeting on Tuesday at Granite Valley Middle School on Thompson Street at 6:30 p.m.
Among the topics are disposing of vegetative debris and planning for the annual July 4 Summerfest celebration. Speakers include a counselor from Wing Memorial Hospital’s Griswold Center, Highway Surveyor John R. Morrell; Building Inspector Harold Leaming, who will give a report of estimated damages and explain what the red tags on houses mean, and Police Chief Stephen Kozloski Jr., who will discuss security issues.
Updates will be given on the town offices, which have been moved to Hillside School on Thompson Street, as well as the library, which has been closed since the storm hit. Assessors will discuss what to do with destroyed or damaged property.
A representative from the state Department of Environmental Protection will discuss demolition, and issues with oil and propane tanks. The state Division of Insurance will be represented, along with a local insurance representative.
A question and answer session will follow. This is the second community meeting the town has held since the tornadoes struck Western and Central Massachusetts nearly two weeks ago. The town is posting tornado updates on its website www.monson-ma.gov
Republican staff members Dan Ring, Sandra Constantine, Lori Stabile, George Graham and Jim Kinney contributed to this report.