FEMA should have put it right

Twin Lakes Road closed since 2004 SKYTOP — “FEMA disaster money is supposed to put things back to the way they were,” Michael Chertoff told the Courier, following the Homeland Security secretary’s appearance at the Pike County Chamber of Commerce dinner Thursday. But weeks of promises for repairs became months and months and then years for the storm-closed section of state Route 1005, Twin Lakes Road. The remains of Hurricane Ivan washed out the base of the road near the Shohola Township Building in September 2004. Later that month a PennDOT spokesman said the road would be closed for several weeks. In November, the same spokesman assured repairs in the spring. Almost three years have passed since Ivan and SR 1005 remains closed at the washout. Pike County Commissioner Chair Harry Forbes has several times recently referred to his inability to get repairs for this “major north-south route” in the county. Chertoff confirmed that once an area become eligible, Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funding does include public works as well as individual funding and that the agency does outcome evaluations to confirm “that things were put back the way they were,” he said. In neighboring New York State, Sullivan County and its town highway departments routinely repair storm damaged roads and bridges with FEMA grants. Noting that he was unfamiliar with the particulars, Chertoff said road repair funding can sometimes fall to the state. FEMA records indicate that Ivan disaster funding of $6.4 million went to Pennsylvania state agencies as “a 75 percent share of the eligible costs for emergency measures, debris removal and permanent restoration.”