UPDATED: Schumer Again Urges FEMA to Cover 90% of City's Sandy-Related Costs

This story was updated at 5:58 p.m. on 5.2.13.

The City of Long Beach announced Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city for the vast majority of the costs in damages the municipality sustained during Hurricane Sandy in October. But both the city and Sen. Charles Schumer's office corrected that characterization of a press conference the senator gave in Freeport that morning, in which he once again called on FEMA and the White House to increase the share the federal government is paying to repaire public property damage by the storm from 75 percent to 90 percent or more.  

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The following announcement was posted on the city's Facebook page early Wednesday afternoon: 
 
"City Council Member Len Torres attended a press conference the with Senator [Charles] Schumer in Freeport this morning, announcing that FEMA will be covering 90% of the costs the City incurred due to Superstorm Sandy instead of the standard 75%."

But later Wednesday, after this story was originally posted at about 10:10 p.m., the city's wording of the announcement was corrected to the following: "...FEMA is now permitted to increase the federal share Of costs To 90% that the City incurred due to Superstorm Sandy instead of the standard 75%."

Marisa Kaufman, a spokeswoman for Schumer's office later sent Patch a release that said Schumer urged FEMA to move forward with a recommendation to President Obama that would adjust the federal cost-share from 75 percent to 90 percent. 

Schumer drew on the Stafford Act, which requires FEMA to pay at least 75 percent of eligible costs, including repair, restoration and debris removal. Once federal obligations meet or exceed $133 per capita of the state’s population -- $2.6 billion in the case of New York -- FEMA can recommend the President adjust the federal cost-share from 75 percent to 90 percent, according to Schumer's office.        

“Sandy was a storm of national significance, and the federal government should act accordingly, picking up as much of the tab as possible so local taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag,” Schumer said in a statement from Wednesday's press conference. “Now that we’ve cross this critical threshold, the federal government can pay for 90 percent or more of the storm damage, and that’s what they should do.”

Schumer on Wednesday was joined by Torres, Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray, said Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci and Village of Freeport Mayor Robert T. Kennedy.

City Manager Jack Schnirman has said that the city sustained about $250 million in damages due to the storm, including substantial damage to the oceanfront boardwalk that was demolished earlier this year. The city on April 16 signed a $44.2 million contract with Grace Industries, a Plainview-based construction firm, to rebuild the 2.2-mile structure within 210 days. Liro, the engineering firm the city hired to oversee the boardwalk project, has said that the new tropical ipe wood and concrete boardwalk will be more resident to potential Sandy-like storms. 

City officials hope that FEMA will pay the full cost of the project, or at least up to 90 percent, and they expect FEMA’s mitigation project could provide added funding under the Stafford Act. The city also seeks other available forms of funding to make up for whatever FEMA doesn't cover, including federal community development block grants and public assistant grants. 

'[T]here will still be state reimbursements and additional grants/financial assistance options, and the City is continuing to advocate that we receive 100% reimbursement," the city wrote on Facebook in a reply to readers’ questions to its original announcement.

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