Mccaskill: $37 million in federal grant money to help pay for ice storm damage in Missouri

October 14, 2009 -- U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill announced today that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will provide the state of Missouri with $37,801,428.07 in federal grant money to help repair damage resulting from the severe ice storms that swept through Southeast Missouri in January 2009.

According to FEMA, the state of Missouri is responsible for distributing the funding to the recipients. Specifically, the grants will go to:

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* Kennett Board of Public Works ($4,101,498.38) will receive funding to help pay for repairs to their distribution lines, power poles, and transformers. They operate 100 miles of distribution lines, serving almost 6,000 people. The January ice storm damaged 87 percent of their distribution lines, 450 power poles, and 180 transformers.
* M & A Electric Power Cooperative ($33,699,929.69) will receive three grants to repair the cooperative’s electrical transmission system. The storm snapped power lines, broke poles and cross-arms, and severed conductors.
o $11,052,558 will go to repairing 32 miles of 161KV transmission lines destroyed by the storms.
o $14,943,680.25 will go repairing 158 miles of destroyed 69KV line and 12 miles of destroyed 34.5KV line.
o $7,703,691.44 will go repairing 20.8 miles of the 345KV line, which were destroyed by the ice storms.

McCaskill believes that federal grants and loans are a positive alternative to earmarks, which in the past have frequently had too little accountability. Competitive merit and need based federal grants and low-interest government loans bring federal assistance to Missouri in an honest and fiscally responsible manner.

Source: Senator Claire McCaskill