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Springfield Receives More FEMA Money For 2011 Tornado

WAMC

It has been nearly five years since a powerful tornado tore through western Massachusetts and the city of Springfield is still settling up financially with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The city announced a $13.8 million grant from FEMA Monday as compensation for the destruction of a neighborhood community center during the tornado on June 1, 2011.  The federal agency had initially rejected the city’s $18 million damage claim, but after several appeals – and nudges from Congressman Richard Neal – a settlement was reached.

" FEMA has done very well by the city and I've said that a number of times," Neal said Monday.

FEMA has awarded Springfield a total of $38.7 million to compensate for what the city claims was $95 million in damage done to public property by the tornado. The city still has appeals pending totaling another $10 million.

Neal had vowed to seek federal funds to rebuild the areas of the city devastated by the storm, and five years later he described the recovery as “remarkable.”

The funds for the latest FEMA grant to Springfield came from the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said the city will continue to press FEMA to obtain “every dime” of disaster aid the city is due.

" It is tedious and time consuming and we are coming up on the fifth anniversary," said Sarno.

Sarno said the city will use the latest FEMA grant to pay to construct a new South End Community Center in a different location than the one that was destroyed, and to build a new senior center.  The city has advanced the money for both projects and has already awarded a $10.3 million construction contract for the community center.

FEMA has not been the only source of disaster recovery money for Springfield.  T.J. Plante, the city’s chief finance officer, said a total of $340 milllion has come from various federal and state agencies to rebuild schools, parks, and low-income housing destroyed by the tornado.

Plante said Springfield has borrowed $50 million to jumpstart many of the recovery projects.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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