Minnetonka Tallies $158K in Storm Costs, Working on FEMA Request

Minnetonka staff is putting the information together to try to recoup some of the costs from last month’s storm.

The city tallied $158,000 in costs, said Jim Flanders, the city’s assistant chief for emergency management and compliance. Most of those costs come from generators necessary to maintain power at key public sites—such as City Hall, lift stations and pumps. A moderate amount comes from wages the city paid employees for tree removal. The Fire Department accounted for only about a half a percent because most of the actual emergency calls were handled within the first hour-and-a-half.

(Those costs do not include expenses in Minnetonka incurred by public utilities.)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may reimburse Minnetonka for up to 75 percent of eligible expenses. That process started shortly after the storm when Minnetonka put together preliminary damage assessments that estimated costs associated with repair and cleanup, Flanders said.

The city submitted that to Hennepin County, which pooled the information together and forwarded it to the state’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division. The state agency then examined the combined information to determine whether the storm met the threshold for a disaster declaration.

In the meantime, FEMA teams came in to look at eligible and ineligible expenses. The process culminated July 25 when President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration for 18 counties, including Hennepin County. That declaration paves the way for affected communities to receive public assistance—that is, assistance to governments, schools, public utilities and other official bodies.

FEMA officials will return the week of Aug. 5 to hold “applicant briefings” to specify what they need. They’ll come back later to evaluate items like receipts and payroll in order to determine all the claimed expenses are eligible and that entities claimed all the expenses they are eligible for.

Once that is complete, Minnetonka will have a better idea about what it needs to submit and how to package it, Flanders said.