Claremore, Okla., Residents Get Help With Tornado Cleanup

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(TNS) – Claremore, Okla., residents may apply for assistance clearing storm debris off their property.

The city posted a personal property debris removal and right of entry form to its Facebook page Monday afternoon. Residents who have storm debris on their property and are unable to bring it to the roadside must complete the form for the city to gather their debris.

City Manager John Feary said the city is generally unable to pick up debris on private property. In a July 26 video on loom.com, Feary said the city would need authorization from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to do so.

The form is available online at claremore.com/tornadorecovery or at the Claremore City Clerk’s Office, 104 S. Muskogee Ave.

The form is six pages long and asks residents whether they are the owner of the property, whether they have insurance and whether there is a mortgage or lien on the property. It also requests the legal description of the property and a description of what debris the resident would like to be removed.

Residents must bring the completed form to the city clerk’s office to be notarized and submitted.

A third-party company, not the city, will determine whether applicants are eligible for assistance and notify them of their determination, according to the Facebook post.

Feary said in the video that a representative from the city’s contracted monitoring firm, Mapco Services, began canvassing homes in the city last weekend. According to the Facebook post, the representative will be distributing the personal property debris removal and right of entry form.

In the video, Feary said he’d heard a man in a black dump truck was posing as a city representative. City spokesperson Kaleigh Hossack said in a Tuesday email that “the potential scam situation from this weekend was found to be unsubstantiated.”

The monitoring firm representative will carry identification and will not drive a dump truck, Feary said.

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