Central Mass Tornado Victims Still Looking for Relief

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

A twister touches down

Disaster relief aid sent to communities hit by tornadoes last June boosted cleanup efforts, but help was harder to find for many victims. Even Gov. Deval Patrick’s recent announcement of an additional $4 million in state funding is of little solace to homeowners who, now 12 months out from the storms that cut and tore a path through several Central and Western Mass towns, are still rebuilding in every sense of the word.

“We’ve got neighbors spending thousands of dollars removing trees from their properties,” said Dan Butler of Brookside Road in Southbridge, one of the areas hit hardest during the June 1, 2011 tornadoes. “Some families are still fighting with insurance companies. A couple families near me still haven’t started rebuilding.”

Help for Communities

So where did the money go? Government funding went straight to municipalities for cleanup efforts. That only covered public use, such as for public works crews, police and fire personnel. Hundreds of residents in Southbridge, Charlton, Brimfield, Sturbridge and further west in Monson saw their properties devastated, in some cases losing hundreds of trees. The financial responsibility to clean up all that damage rests squarely on the homeowners. Insurance companies, ostensibly in place to help in a time of need, in many cases have argued with their customers.

The only chance private property owners had to get in on the public cleanup was in the days immediately following the tornadoes. Butler said he was told to pull trees into the streets, where public works crews would gather them.

“But at the time, a lot of us had so much going on. We didn’t have anything ready when they came,” said Butler. “And after they did, that was it.”

A year later, the fallout from the storms is still great. In Butler’s neighborhood, flooding is a huge issue because it is a hilly area and all the trees that once soaked up a good portion of water are gone.

“We’ve got some families that haven’t even started to rebuild, yet,” said Butler.

Fighting for Money

State Rep. Peter Durant, R-Spencer, who represents the 6th Worcester District that includes Southbridge and Charlton, understands the complaints.

“I had to fight to get money for Charlton, which ended up only being about $40,000,” Durant said. “When the federal disaster declaration was made, Worcester County was originally off the list. The president had to sign off on Southbridge, Sturbridge and Charlton. But somehow, Charlton got left off. I had to fight tooth and nail to get that town listed. The governor told me Charlton was not going to any relief money.”

The Republican lawmaker acknowledged it wasn’t a lot of money “in the grand scheme of things, but $40,000 to a town like Charlton is a significant amount of money.”

Durant could sympathize with people like Butler who feel left out when it comes to getting financial assistance.

“That is what is most frustrating,” said Durant, “that there’s no relief for homeowners that have to clear trees. That’s where the gap fell.”

Towns Received Funding

Not that Central Mass communities didn’t receive any state funding. According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance, Brimfield received $170,591 in disaster relief funds, Sturbridge received $104,280 and Southbridge got $35,405. That funding was part of a supplemental budget bill last year that provided $15 million to support costs incurred responding to the tornadoes.

Butler believes someone dropped the ball in Southbridge, although he was reluctant to lay all the blame at the feet of Town Manager Christopher Clark.

“I think our town could have done more,” Butler said. “I really do. None of that money has gone to victims that I know of. I mean they recently voted on buying a street sweeper when we needed a lot more important things. What about reimbursing us for paying the full cost for a building permit? What about a wood chipper to help clear out the trees from our property?”

Clark could not immediately be reached for comment.

The tornadoes downed trees, tore through houses and flipped over small buildings

Governor Touts Aid

Patrick, who like many other state and federal officials spent the anniversary of the tornadoes making the rounds to affected communities, said much has been done to help private homeowners and businesses.

“To date, individuals, homeowners and businesses have received more than $26.7 million in federal disaster assistance to cover uninsured losses,” Patrick said in a press release Friday, when he was scheduled to visit Western Mass towns like Monson. “The Department of Housing and Community Development helped hundreds of families find emergency shelter and has so far funded $525,000 in home repair. The Division of Insurance served as a resource and advocate for consumers filing $200 million in claims.”

More than 98 percent of the 11,500 tornado-related insurance claims filed after the have been paid, according to Patrick, with policyholders receiving $200.3 million from carriers.

Local lawmakers chose to focus on the future and laud the release of the latest round of disaster relief funding.

“This funding is welcome and needed assistance for these communities that are still in the process of rebuilding,” state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, whose district includes Brimfield and Sturbridge. “It further demonstrates our unfaltering commitment to restoring a sense of safety and normalcy to the residents affected by this disaster.”

State Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, represents Southbridge and said the money will be put to good use.

“With Southbridge and the other western and central Massachusetts communities continuing to deal with effects of the devastating tornado, and given the continual need to rebuild, this is certainly welcomed news,” Moore said.

Brown Chides FEMA

During a visit to Worcester on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who included a visit to Western Mass on his itinerary, but did not stop in either Brimfield, Charlton, Southbridge or Sturbridge, said he is advocating for more funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“That’s the real challenge,” said Brown, “getting FEMA to release funding. That’s the biggest challenge. We’re going to have a conversation.”

Brown said he has toured the Central Mass towns previously.

The front and back yards of many houses were left in shambles

No Luck with State

Dealing with state agencies has been just as challenging, according to Butler, who didn’t necessarily see additional funding of some of those agencies as a good thing. He singled out the American Red Cross, which he said told him the money collected at fundraisers for relief efforts has gone into a general fund “to pay for the next disaster.”

Butler was particularly displeased with the organization ReBuild Western Mass.

“They’ve been terrible,” said Butler. “I’ve got five other neighbors that would say the same thing. We reported them to our state representative. They came around after the tornadoes, we filled out all the paperwork, a company came out and told us how to rebuild our houses. They told us what specs to use for the windows and for our doors. We made all the improvements. We were told we would get money for installing energy-efficient doors and windows, but they turned around and told us our windows didn’t meet their ratings and our doors didn’t. We did exactly what they told us to do.”

Durant said there was a “disconnect in some of the money available for rebuilding with energy-efficient upgrades.”

ReBuild Western Mass is under the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. A spokesperson for that office did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment.

Just like Brown has found FEMA “challenging,” Butler said he was dumbfounded by his experience with the federal agency.

“They said they would help with materials and equipment for volunteers doing cleanup,” Butler said. “We sent in the receipts, a little more than $700. We got a check for $300. Then, a few weeks later, they wrote us that we had been overpaid because those things were covered by the insurance company and we had to pay it all back. The insurance company never covered it. So we ended up getting nothing from either the insurance company or FEMA.”

Saying he didn’t want to be all negative, Butler said he nonetheless had been frustrated by everything that has transpired since the tornadoes. He said he appreciated things like the fundraisers and ceremonies, but once they’re over the people are gone.

“We send all this money to Haiti, but you can’t get $300 to us,” he sighed.

Neighbors to the Rescue

It hasn’t all been bad. Butler said where local, state and federal government failed, friends and neighbors – even total strangers – have not.

“We’ve got local residents doing more for us than anyone else,” he said.

Among them is Mike Murray of Southbridge, who last month helped coordinate a public-private partnership that resulted in the planting of hundreds of trees in Southbridge, Charlton, Brimfield and Sturbridge. And while Butler hasn’t seen much in the way of help from the state, the Department of Conservation and Recreation played a big role in the tree plantings, according to Murray.

“I wanted to do something long-range,” Murray said of the idea to donate trees to affected areas. “I had been listening to so many people talk about what they were going through and how they were spending tens of thousands of dollars to clear trees. I thought, ‘What is the plan to replace those trees?’”

While Butler and so many others in Central and Western Mass continue to pick up the pieces, there is an acknowledgment that much progress has been made. Butler, for example, said he is “doing really good” and wants to help his neighbors. Durant said there are plenty of signs that life is moving forward in these devastated communities.

“I see significant progress being made,” he said. “There are very few homes that are still vacant. There are a few (on Worcester Street in Southbridge) still boarded, but for the most part people’s lives are moving forward. I think this is something that is going to stay with affected people for a very long time. I think it is important for people to remember there are a lot of people who are still dealing with the aftermath of all this.”