Maine's storm-damaged communities say FEMA is no longer paying up
YORK COUNTY (WGME) -- As Maine communities place finishing touches before tourism season, in York County, crumbling retaining walls and construction cones are going on years waiting for relief.
Emergency Management Agencies are now pointing the finger directly at the hand that feeds them: the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
It was the spring of 2018 when the town of York faced a nor'easter.
Public Works was seen cleaning up days after, but Public Works Director Dean Lessard never thought they'd still be dealing with the construction five years later.
"The town has probably spent $3-4 million on repair damage to our seawall," Lessard said. "This was one of the spots FEMA came down with a representative right after the storm and saying, 'Here we are, we're gonna help,' and we're still waiting on that help."
He's worked 13 federal disasters hand-in-hand with FEMA agents.
"These last two storms, totally different. They're looking at every possible way not to pay," Lessard said.
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Lessard says FEMA once took weeks to approve applications. Now many are going on years.
"York: We still provide a lot of funding," FEMA Region 1 Recovery Division Director Bob Grimley said.
Grimley says they've approved more than $1 million for York County since 2018. Close to another $1 million is still awaiting the OK.
"What I'll tell you is Covid did impact our operations," Grimley said.
But the I-Team found, years before the pandemic, FEMA's application process changed. It moved fully online in 2017.
"The people that are coming up with possible estimates to repair, or the possible scope of work for this repair, are in Houston," Lessard said. "They're not here in Maine. They're not looking at this. They see pictures."
"Nothing's perfect," Grimley said. "The intent of the National Delivery Model is to expedite a lot of this funding."
Grimley says the National Delivery Model definitely sped up the process when it came to Covid relief. But when it comes to storm damage applications, FEMA's own internal review finds the process slows down. The report shows the portal takes "significantly longer," saying, "The National Delivery Model has not met its original intent for improving timeliness and accessibility."
"I wanted to be building this wall last fall," Biddeford EMA Director Roby Fecteau said.
Fecteau is talking about the river wall damaged by the October storm of 2021. A sliver of the pending project to fix it falls on private property. It's one reason FEMA claims the process is taking longer.
"These things are more likely to be appealed or have differences because they are so complex," Grimley said.
The I-Team reached out to Maine's U.S. senators, asking if they would step in. The next day, Fecteau says he got a call from Senator Angus King's office.
"I hadn't heard from them in quite some time," Fecteau said. "Probably at the very beginning of all this."
Since our interview with Fecteau, FEMA sat down with him. The project approval now looks promising.
"In my opinion, it's going to be a good story in the end," Grimley said.
But back in York, the town is incurring debt hoping FEMA will step in.
On a busy summer day, 6,000 people will visit Long Beach Avenue, and they'll see $500,000 in sidewalk and road repairs, denied and appealed multiple times. FEMA says the road is already maintained by the Federal Highway Administration, making it ineligible for FEMA's help. But Lessard has tried to prove state statute places the road under the town's care.
"DOT doesn't maintain this road, the town of York does," Lessard said.
"I think we're on the right side of the story," Grimley said. "And if they had gotten funding for it in the past, those disasters are closed, and we'll just, you know, move on."
York's applications don't stop there.
On Short Sands Beach, a road-sewer main project has been approved but at half the cost of the town's estimates.
"As you can see, it's only meant to be temporary. Not to be here five years," Lessard said. "You can't just Band-Aid it. Or else we're going to be back here in the next storm."
The I-Team asked FEMA: Are you intentionally spending less money, or delaying approval, for these Maine communities? Grimley says his crew is not trying to stand in the way of federal funding.