The city of Tempe now estimates that more than 1,000 homes and 83 businesses were damaged by the Oct. 13 microburst.
But officials still don’t know how many people were displaced by the storm two weeks ago.
Some people could be out of their homes for the long term, especially those who lived in apartment units that have been damaged.
The city has cleared over 600-tons of plant material that had been knocked over from the storm. A Tempe spokesperson says the public works department has been working 12-hour days, seven days a week clearing debris.
Monique Rodriguez is interim emergency manager with Tempe. She says the Red Cross was seeing hurricane level damage.
“Arizona as a whole is not ready for hurricane-type events, but we definitely started identifying the needs and being able to pull in those resources to start making things move along and get people the resources," Rodriguez said.
Congressman Greg Stanton, who represents Tempe’s district, recently visited a storm resource center and said officials are developing a case for FEMA assistance.
“We hope that the administration will quickly agree to that based upon the evidence that the citizens of Tempe are providing. And if so, then we can do a lot more long-term support for the residents here in Tempe," Stanton said.
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At a time when many Arizona school districts are closing schools due to low enrollment, the Tempe Union High School District is seeing a slight uptick in students. -
Thousands of dollars in donations are on track to be distributed by the Tempe Community Action Agency. The city — along with donors — raised around $23,000 in what officials call “flexible” storm relief. -
Between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., community members will see an increase in emergency personnel including police units, fire trucks and ambulances on ASU’s Tempe campus. -
The owners of a Tempe bar where police found underage people in two dragnet operations this year say they want to help with a deadly hit-and-run investigation that led to the most recent raid. -
The Trump administration is temporarily withdrawing a plan to overhaul federal grant funding for housing services.
