After fighting with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for years over claims for damages from the tornadoes that hit Springfield on March 12, 2006, the utility says it has exhausted all its appeals. CWLP will seek city council permission in the next few weeks to pay FEMA $794,732 from the electric emergency repair account.

 

City Water, Light and Power paid $11.6 million to re-erect power lines and poles, repair infrastructure and restore power to more than 50,000 people after the 2006 tornadoes — the most expensive weather-related incident in the utility’s history.

 

FEMA reimbursed the utility about $7.6 million. The utility says those expenses were approved by on-site FEMA representatives at the time.

 

Three years later, however, FEMA sent a team of auditors to pore over storm-related documents at city hall for about a month. The agency found the utility had been paid nearly $2 million for expenses that were not eligible for reimbursement.

 

Through the years, the utility and city attorney’s office flied multiple appeals and were able to reduce the amount in question from nearly $2 million to nearly $800,000.