From Deseret News archives:
Leavitt seeking $8 million in aid
Figure doesn't encompass all the tornado damage
The request, which was to be funneled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the White House Friday evening, cited the substantial property damage and multiple casualties caused by the freak storm.
State officials are hoping for an answer by the middle of next week.
The amount is much less than the total estimated damage because federal rules limit aid largely to uninsured property and government expenses.
Leavitt said the cost to affected government agencies was tallied at $3.2 million. That total includes the cost of debris removal, which has a price tag of a little over $2 million.
The figure also takes in costs to utilities. Utah Power, since the storm, has replaced 19 poles, 36 transformers and 7,300 feet of wire. About 20,000 customers were without power due to the tornado.
Announcing the numbers at a Friday press conference, Leavitt said the survey of the 185 homes inspected in the past two days resulted in a damage assessment of a little more than $5.1 million.
The final count logged five homes that were destroyed, 85 that suffered major damage, 12 that sustained minor damage, and 83 that were affected in some way.
The estimate does not include structural damage and additional damage that is not readily apparent.
It also includes costs that may be reimbursed through homeowners insurance, which Leavitt said the majority of affected people had.
It may not include the money needed to replace about 700 trees decimated in the storm and the cost to haul them away.
The figures, substantially lower than the $150 million estimate issued earlier, do not include any of the monetary losses sustained by private businesses such as the Delta Center and the Wyndham Hotel.
Still, the damage estimate may not reflect the true bottom line, said Thayne Robson, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah.
"No one will ever sit down and calculate the total disruptions and losses that are occasioned by this storm or any other storm," Robson said. "Little short-term events like this can have significant impacts that are never fully identifiable or quantifiable."
People remain stunned by the devastation of the tornado, a rare weather phenomenon in Utah.
Although Las Vegas man Allen Crandy's death was reported to be the first known fatality in the state due to a tornado, the Deseret News had a story on one in 1884.
The July 7 article said Kitty Wells, 7, was killed near Wanship and several family members were injured.
