Newsday - By Darwin Yanes darwin.yanes@newsday.com
March 11, 2022
Homeowners still recovering from the remnants of Hurricane Ida last year may receive some financial relief through a fund Assembly leaders are proposing with $50 million in state aid.
Assemb. Gina Sillitti (D-Manorhaven), who will be joined Friday by affected homeowners at a damaged home in Manorhaven, said legislators have agreed to propose in the governor’s budget money designated to help pay for repairs. The Assembly is expected to vote on the resolution early next week, Sillitti said, but the measure will have to be passed in the state’s budget in April.
"I promised residents when I met them [after Hurricane Ida] that I wouldn’t forget about them and I haven’t," Sillitti told Newsday on Thursday. "There’s been such a disparity between the damage caused by the [storm] and what FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] was able to provide. It just wasn’t enough."
At least 2,900 homes across New York State were damaged by the remnants of Ida last September, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced shortly after the hurricane, which in some parts of Long Island brought up to 9 inches of rain.
Wendy Teppel, whose home in Great Neck sustained more than $140,000 in damages, has advocated on behalf of neighbors affected by Ida. She had flood insurance and was able to file claims for repairs, but many of her neighbors did not have coverage. She said Sillitti’s proposal could help her neighbors "put their homes back together."
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