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Dover still under state of emergency, still cleaning up

Kelli Steele
/
Delaware Public Media

The city of Dover remains in a state of emergency and cleanup efforts continue in the wake of last week’s tornado. 

The city is bringing in the disaster response nonprofit Team Rubicon to help clean up debris from tropical storm Isaias. 

Team Rubicon is sending a team of 25 with chain saws to help Dover residents remove fallen trees and other debris from their property at no cost to the homeowner. 

Dover Emergency Manager Kay Sass says many in the city do not have this type of service covered by their homeowner’s insurance. 

“Some of these trees are just massive in size, and they don’t have the finances to do it and they don’t have the ability, physically, to move these trees,” said Sass.      

Team Rubicon is expected to arrive in Dover by the end of the week. Capital School District is putting the team up at Dover High School, and the city is paying for their meals. 

Sass estimates the debris removal to cost the city about $500,000. 

“There’s a very large expense [sic] that goes hand-in-hand with debris removal. We’re probably talking easily a half-a-million dollars’ worth of just removing debris from the city,” she said. “This is going to be very costly. This disaster is very costly to the city.”      

Sass notes the city is still assessing the total damage caused by Isaias, and will be eventually looking to apply for federal disaster aid.

Dover residents in need of cleanup assistance are encouraged to call the city’s crisis clean up line at 1-844-965-1386. 

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