Residents impacted by December flooding and landslides are struggling to afford the cost of debris disposal, which isn’t covered by the state’s individual assistance relief funding.
In a letter to the borough assembly, the Haines Long Term Recovery Group is estimating a price tag of more than $125,000 for disposal between five property owners. The numbers do not include Beach Road residents and other affected areas.
“The full extent of the funds needed is still unknown as many residents are only just beginning to assess the damage,” the letter states. “Given the scope of the damages areawide, we anticipate these cases to be approximately 10% of total debris processing needs.”
Steve Virg-In, whose home was destroyed by a slide on Lutak Spur Road, is facing disposal costs of around $22,000. The estimate was provided by Community Waste Solutions manager Craig Franke. CWS charges .25 cents per pound for construction demolition material.
The state will provide a maximum of $18,000 for individual assistance depending on damage. Virg-In, because he didn’t live in Haines for at least six months in 2020, is ineligible for any state relief funding.
Other municipalities have assisted their residents in removal and disposal costs. After wildfires damaged private property in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, residents moved wreckage into the street and the borough picked it up. The municipality was reimbursed by FEMA’s public assistance program because the debris was on a public right-of-way, said Mat-Su Borough director of public works Terry Dolan.
“Our experience was that many landowners dragged their private debris out onto the right-of-way to help reduce their disposal costs,” Dolan said. “When we had a contractor go clean it up, the borough ended up paying for it and FEMA reimbursed us under the public assistance program. We were able to get a company that recycled the metals to take most of the debris.”
Dolan said the municipality did fund additional debris disposal that remained on private property.
Jeremy Zidek, public information officer for the state’s Division of Emergency Management, said it might be too late for state or FEMA public assistance programs to fund the effort.
“There is public assistance funding that is available for debris management but it generally takes place after the disaster event occurs,” Zidek said. “This event took place more than five months ago. They can come through and remove things from roadways, but mostly that’s on public property and not on private property.”
The long-term recovery group asked assembly members if the borough could financially assist affected residents or donate equipment and operators to help demolish and transport debris material.
Recovery group secretary Sylvia Heinz brought the issue to the Solid Waste Working Group last week.
“The main thing the board is trying to communicate is identifying an emerging need,” Heinz said. “We don’t have accurate numbers for the entire debris (processing) needs, but we recognize they’re significant. As a community, how are we going to handle this? We wanted to make sure the borough recognized this was a need as a soon as possible.”