Just 48 hours after a freak EF-2 tornado ripped through this city just north of Boston, it's remarkable how much has been cleaned up and shored up so quickly, with streets cleared of trees and glass, shattered windows boarded up, and all but a few dozen electric customers' power restored.
But Revere officials are bracing for the likelihood that city taxpayers will have to bear the cost of Revere's cleanup all by themselves -- or hope for a state bailout package -- because of a quirk in federal disaster eligibility.
Disaster relief, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's website, is awarded based on the extent of damage per capita across a county and state. And Revere suffers from the geographical quirk it is part of Suffolk County, along with Boston, Chelsea, and Winthrop. While Revere saw over 70 buildings, dozens of vehicles, and hundreds of trees damaged in a half-mile swath along Broadway, Revere accounts for only about 52,000 of Suffolk County's 722,000 residents -- and Boston was largely unaffected by Monday's storm. Formulas on the FEMA website indicate that all of Massachusetts would have had to have suffered $9.1 million in federally qualifying damages, and Suffolk County $2.5 million in damages, from the Monday storm in order for Revere to become eligible for federal relief for the cost of its tree contractors, public works, housing authority, police, fire and other workers who mounted a massive, aggressive response to the storm's damage. While Revere has definitely spent tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars, since the Monday storm, officials doubt there are enough federally qualifying damages to meet the county-level threshhold.
Revere Fire Chief Gene Doherty, who also serves as Mayor Dan Rizzo's emergency management director, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon, "Boston is the elephant in the room, and we can't get enough of a loss total" county-wide "for us to meet that type of criteria, so sometimes we really have to fight the government on getting us involved in disaster relief for the major storms."
Doherty said he's confident many homeowners and businesses will be covered by insurance, or by a relief fund Rizzo is having organized. The Small Business Administration is coming in Thursday to evaluate whether businesses can qualify for low-interest loans for disaster relief. The city of Revere should also get relief from insurance policies on damaged buildings like its city hall and high school and central fire station. "Who's going to be on the short end is the city with our expenses that are not covered," Doherty said, "like what's being done to take the trees down and collect all the debris and all the overtime that that involves. That will all be on the city, and normally with disaster relief, that's what we'd be paid for."
Many businesses are only beginning to count up what the tornado will cost them. Joe Manne, owner of Manne's Bakery on Broadway, was relieved to have his smashed windows boarded up by Tuesday morning and his power back on by Monday night so he could reopen for business days sooner than he expected with minimal food loss. "We're not going to know a dollar amount for a while. There are so many places that have got to be taken care of," Manne said. "But the cleanup crew got everything boarded up and safe for everyone to be here so that we could open. They were a lifesaver. And the city guys, the tree cleanup and the electrical, it was coordinated very well, considering we've never seen anything like this."
With videographer Daniel A. Valente Jr.
