Sandy: Damage in Madison Exceeds $20M, OEM Says

Superstorm Sandy destroyed three houses, caused major damage to 27 other homes, and inflicted some degree of damage on thousands of other residences throughout the borough, Madison's Office of Emergency Management coordinator said Friday.

Coordinator Bob Landrigan said a preliminary estimate puts the damage to private and public facilities in Madison in excess of $20 million.

He estimates the damage to private property at over $19 million, and to public property at over $2 million. He arrived at those figures based on surveying the damage and knowing what it cost to recover from other storms.

Approximately 100 utility poles and transformers around the borough also were destroyed, he said.

Eventually factoring all the damage, such as food that was thrown out because of lost power, could bring the estimate higher.

"It could go much higher," Landrigan said.

The estimates are reported to Morris County, then the state, and then the federal government to assess damage caused by the storm, he said.

It is too early to tell how much of the damage could be covered by insurance or FEMA, he said.

Madison has approximately 5,000 houses, and Landrigan said around half sustained some sort of damage, such as broken windows, damaged roofs, and walkways pulled up by uprooted trees.