Now a week since Hurricane Isabel unleashed her fury on Virginia, local and state officials are still working to assess what many are saying could be monumental cleanup costs from the storm.
According to Director of Facilities Operations Chris Willis, facilities management finance employees currently are adding up the cost of University cleanup efforts.
"Because it was a statewide emergency, we're going to track those charges and try and submit those to some federal or maybe state agencies that may be able to help with some of the cost," Willis said.
Willis also said the University might be able to pay for some of the damages to buildings around Grounds -- mainly flooding and roof leaks -- by seeking insurance reimbursements.
If the University is not able to fully recoup the costs of storm damage from outside sources, the funds will have to come from the facilities management general operating budget, which could affect other maintenance initiatives, he said.
"Whatever they don't reimburse us or give to us, then obviously we take it out of our operating costs and that's something else that can't be done," he said.
The most expensive aspect of the storm cleanup has been dealing with damaged trees, many of which need to be removed, Willis said.
The City of Charlottesville, which has been declared a federal disaster area, also still is evaluating the mounting costs of its recovery efforts, City Spokesperson Maurice Jones said.
"We are in the process of compiling those numbers and will be moving forward with that process in the coming days," Jones said.
Like the University, the City also is hoping to recover the majority of its cleanup expenses from state and federal authorities, he said.
"We'll apply to the feds for the bulk of the reimbursement and to the state for the rest," Jones said. "I think it's up to 75 percent reimbursement for the feds and then [we will apply to] the state for the rest."
Jones said the most costly aspect of hurricane recovery for Charlottesville so far has been overtime pay for public safety personnel, who have been working around the clock in recent days.
"As for [property] damage [costs] it's hard to say at this time," he said.
On the state level, as of yesterday Virginia was estimating expenses from the hurricane totaling $677 million, with $485 million representing private property and $192 million public interests, said Bob Spieldenner, director of public affairs for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Spieldenner said the above estimate already dwarfs the $255 million required for recovery from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and that the amount only is likely to grow.
"We're looking at this [as] probably one of the most expensive storms Virginia has faced," he said. "We have a lot of areas we haven't gotten information from yet. This is just early numbers and it's going to grow."
Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner has been in constant contact with federal relief officials before, during and now after the storm, Warner spokesperson Kevin Hall said.
"We've had frequent conversations with [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Tom] Ridge," Hall said. "The President came to visit for a briefing [Monday] and to promise federal help."
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