Atlanta is suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, still hoping to recoup $1.2 million for losses from flooding 15 years ago.
The city’s suit, filed May 9 in U.S. District Court against FEMA and its administrator, Deanne Criswell, says FEMA denied the city’s appeals for years without ever considering their merits, ultimately blaming the denial on a claim that a Georgia grant official was 40 days late forwarding the city’s appeal to FEMA.
Atlanta suffered “historic catastrophic flash flooding” during eight days in September 2009, the city says.
“According to the National Weather Service, at the height of the event, an estimated 10 to 20 inches of rain occurred in less than 24 hours,” the lawsuit says.
That killed 10 Georgians, damaged tens of thousands of structures and did hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. President Barack Obama declared it a major disaster, making multiple counties eligible for disaster relief. That included Fulton, in which the majority of Atlanta is located.
Atlanta’s Robert M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center was “severely damaged” by the flooding, according to the suit: “Substantial portions of the Plant were submerged.”
That led to untreated wastewater flowing into the Chattahoochee River.
As part of the repair and cleanup workers replaced eight ultraviolet disinfection units, bringing fecal bacteria back down to acceptable levels by November 2009. Atlanta applied for $1.2 million in reimbursement, the cost for those emergency replacement parts.
But a FEMA official offered less than $37,000, saying he couldn’t find documentation of all the parts replaced, according to the lawsuit. Atlanta says those invoices were attached to the original application.
The FEMA response to another appeal in 2014 reduced the amount to just $200.61.
The city says FEMA didn’t even raise the supposed missed deadline until 2017, and has often ignored deadlines or failed to respond.
In May 2018, the agency again refused to consider Atlanta’s appeal, leading to the current lawsuit. The city wants the court to order reconsideration of its appeals and to award unspecified “other relief.”
FEMA declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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