Hurricane Bob - Aftermath

Aftermath

Following the storm's passage, the Long Island Lighting Company used 165 workers to restore the power outages on Long Island. In Connecticut, state officials deployed about 200 trucks to remove debris on roads. The Massachusetts National Guard was activated to assist in relief efforts. In Rhode Island, a man was killed while repairing damage caused by Bob. Beaches in the state re-opened by five days after the storm. The hurricane mixed the waters in Long Island Sound and prevented the algae bloom that happened in previous summers. In the days after Bob, the Commonwealth Electric Company brought electricians from outside the company and put their own workers on 16 hour shifts to restore power across Massachusetts. Most Massachusetts residents, excluding those living on Cape Cod, had their power restored within five days. The hurricane struck toward the end of the summer, which significantly impacted the tourism season already in the midst of a recession. The New England coast was affected by a powerful nor'easter known as the Perfect Storm about two months after the hurricane struck the region. Some locations experienced worse damage from the October storm than from Bob.

Due to the high damage from Hurricane Bob, president George H.W. Bush declared the following states as disaster (in order): Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York. Damage in Maine was insufficient to qualify for individual family assistance. Instead, the declaration allocated federal funding to reimburse cities for debris removal, repairing damaged public buildings, and other municipal expenses for each of the states. Despite the declaration, the federal government did not immediately provide aid to the affected region. This was partially due to President Bush considering the storm a "disaster but not an emergency", which therefore required cuts from other budgets to offset the relief aid. This was in opposition to the Democratic-controlled Congress, who requested an expedited process. Because of its impact, the name Bob was retired by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 1992, and will never be used again for an Atlantic hurricane. It was replaced with "Bill" in the 1997 season.