Sweeton, left, and Maloney
TOWN OF WARWICK – It took three years of persuading, but Town of
Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton and Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney
finally got FEMA to agree to foot the $489,000 bill to replace a culvert
pipe carrying a stream under Brady Road thta was damged by Superstorm
Sandy. Since the storm, the road gradually deteriorated as well resulting
in the town blocking it off since the storm.
Sweeton gave Maloney a firsthand look at the storm damage on Monday.
Initially, FEMA offered to pay the town just $50,000 for the work, but the local officials were able to convince the bureaucrats to up the ante.
Maloney said other storms will occur and the local infrastructure must be ready to handle them.
“The point is we know that these super storms are coming. We know that we are seeing the climate change. We are seeing an increase in the frequency and intensity of these storms,” Maloney said. “If we don’t do repairs like this now we will regret it when the next storm comes, so it’s not just about getting back on our feet still three years after these storms. It’s about preparing for the next one.”
Sweeton said it was important to bring that road back to a good state of repair.
“The road continued to deteriorate and our own investigation showed that the pipes that were there were being undermined in the center, so we were losing this road inches by inches while we had to deal with the delay of FEMA,” he said.
Sweeton said work on the repairs could begin in the spring of next year with completion by May.
