Sen. Shaheen: Seacoast storm damage expected to qualify for FEMA funds

Damage on the Seacoast from back-to-back storms and flooding events in January are “absolutely” expected to meet the eligibility requirement for federal disaster funds, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, said Friday during a tour of Ocean Boulevard.

State officials and municipal public safety employees from Hampton, North Hampton and Rye showed Shaheen the wide range of damage throughout the three oceanside towns along Route 1A as the Seacoast continues to recover from the Jan. 10 and Jan. 13 storms. U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, was also given a tour of the damaged sites by local and state officials following Shaheen’s visit, according to Rye Town Administrator Matthew Scruton.

Megan Hoskins, assistant director of New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the Seacoast towns affected by the storms will need to clear a hurdle of at least $2.5 million in damage to qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding in New Hampshire.

While local and state partners are still assessing the costs of the damage — meaning Gov. Chris Sununu cannot yet submit a request for federal disaster funding — Shaheen believes the Seacoast will be receiving more than $2.5 million.

“As we heard from all of the officials who have been dealing with this, it’s not just that the damage is worse. It’s not just that the water was higher. Each storm produced more damage. They went further inland, more properties were affected. It’s really challenging,” Shaheen said. “What I think is impressive is the work of local officials to keep everybody safe through all of this and to get things moving again as fast as they did. It’s impressive. The state and local officials worked very closely together. Now we need to assess the damage, get the FEMA help that people need, and hopefully think about in the future how we’d respond because these kinds of storms are going to continue to happen more often and (will be) more damaging.”

Shaheen was shown Rye Harbor, Bass Beach and North Beach in Hampton, where municipal and state employees showed her images of the flooding, damage to personal and public property from high tides and impactful waves.

Damage from storm highly visible in Seacoast NH towns

Weeks after the storm, rocks and debris still litter the side of the roadways in the three communities, with signs and sea walls knocked down, and outdoor staircases, homes and parking lots broken and cratered. Bridges and roadways were shut down for weeks after the flooding, which led to transformers being submerged in water and propane tanks floating away, as well as downed wires causing residential fires.

“They’re looking at long-term planning for how to be more resilient in the future, how to avoid and build back better so that we can avoid some of this damage in the future,” Shaheen said of local and state agencies. “Again, these storms are going to happen more often, and they’re going to do more damage. We have to respond differently than we have in the past.”

As local municipalities recover, other questions are crossing authorities’ minds: When will the next significant storm hit, and how will they react?

Hampton Town Manager Jamie Sullivan said municipalities can’t prevent the next imminent storm, but they can strengthen how they respond and partner together.

“It’s a matter of how we can fortify and make decisions of how you can prepare. It’s going to be there,” he said.

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Rye fire chief says crews saved towns from worse damage

Rye Fire Department Chief Mark Cotreau is seven years into his tenure with the department.

“We’ve seen some significant flooding over the years, but I haven’t seen anything like the second storm, especially. What we had here was the first storm obviously weakened the infrastructure, and then the second storm was as powerful as the first one,” he said. "We knew that the impact was going to be similar, and we knew that we had a weakened infrastructure. The state Department of Transportation and the Rye (public works department) did a yeoman’s job, shoring up where they could. They really worked feverishly between the two storms … and I think they probably saved it from being worse than what it (the second storm) was.”

Joe Titone, Seabrook’s director of emergency management, noted flooding occurred on Route 286, an evacuation route.

“We couldn’t get south to Salisbury, because they were closed, and we couldn’t get north to Hampton,” he said. “In effect, we were on an island for the duration of the event.”

Residents in some parts of Seabrook were advised ahead of the second storm to evacuate, as town officials predicted some emergency vehicles would be unable to get to their streets during the storm. Damage to town equipment, including vehicles and pumping stations relied on for town wells and fresh water, totaled $25,000 to $40,000, he told Shaheen.

“But we survived,” Titone added.

State funding sought, as well as federal dollars

Democratic state Sen. Debra Altschiller of Stratham is a prime sponsor of a bill filed Jan. 18 calling for state funding to be allocated to Hampton, North Hampton, Rye, New Castle, Portsmouth and Seabrook for infrastructure repairs.

“This is unprecedented, at the risk of not finding the words, because actually we don’t have the words to describe how the relentlessness of the change in climate has affected our coastline,” she said Friday at North Beach. “We have to not only get this back up and running because this is a gem, but (also) we have to keep an eye on how we’re going to do it better. It can’t be Band-Aids because they rip off before we’re healed.”

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The text of the bill, Senate Bill 590-FN-A, currently calls for $1 for the damage, a figure standing as a placeholder while data is collected on the true costs.

“We blew out municipal budgets doing this kind of response, so we want to be able to do the cleanup with an eye on the rebuild,” Altschiller said.

Editor's note: State Sen. Debra Altschiller is the wife of Howard Altschiller, Seacoast Media Group's executive editor.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Shaheen: Seacoast storm damage expected to qualify for FEMA funds