Derecho cleanup cost Newton more than $1M

Every week since the derecho swept through Central Iowa last year, the City of Newton’s public works director has maintained constant contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to record and partially reimburse the more than $1 million in cleanup expenses.

Newton Public Works Director Jody Rhone said FEMA categorized three separate projects for the city: emergency protection measures, streets and roads and debris removal. FEMA reimbursement covers 75 percent of the costs while the state portion can account for 10 percent.

Emergency protection measures expenses totaled a little less than $6,000, Rhone said. FEMA reimbursed $4,488; the State of Iowa paid back $594.

To pay for the damages to roads and bridges, Rhone said the city reported $13,809 to FEMA and the state and reimbursed $10,375 and $1,380.

By far the largest project was the debris removal, which Rhone indicated city staff is still working through. The actual cleanups are finished, but the city must still track the work. FEMA considers any project over $131,000 to be a “large project,” and thus requires a great deal of scrutiny.

“Currently, we’re at $1,008,983 on that project — that number may change slightly as we go through the process,” Rhone said during a staff report to the city council on Monday, Aug. 16. “Every week we submit all of the information. They take it back. It goes through their review process.”

In addition to providing documents to FEMA, Rhone regularly provides photos, damage inventories and identifies and GPS locations of all damages in Newton. All the while he’s tracking contractors, the materials used, the amount of labor spent and the kind of equipment used to fix the damaged items.

Rhone has experience with public assistance and tracking measures, but it was when he was working as a superintendent for the city. Back then he wasn’t dealing directly with FEMA. It’s a long process but the city is getting through it, Rhone said.

“It’s consumed my last year,” Rhone said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com