Rakvere gets 650,000EEK

TALLINN (BNS) - The Estonian government on July 25 ruled to allocate 648,517 kroons ($39,000) to the northern town of Rakvere to compensate for the damage caused by a tornado earlier this month. The sum is considerably smaller than sought by the municipal government.

Rakvere authorities asked the government for 2.78 million kroons to eliminate the storm damage but received only roughly one fourth of this. Deputy Mayor Peep Vassilyev told BNS the Cabinet's decision was an unwelcome surprise as he had hoped the government would satisfy the town's application in full.

"The 2.78 million kroons the town applied for was the smallest sum to enable the town to restore roofs of houses hit by the tornado. Rakvere did not ask for the money on the principle that the more you ask for the more you get.

We asked exactly the minimum we need," the deputy mayor said.

In addition, the town would need at least 2.25 million kroons to reinforce constructions damaged by the storm.

"As the government gave Rakvere only one fourth of the money it needs, the town will apparently have to adopt a negative supplementary budget this year. The town cannot leave people without shelter and because of this some other things will have to be left undone this year," Vassilyev stated.

The town has cleared up streets and carted away rubble using its own funds.

Last week Rakvere bought roofing that was given to victims of the tornado for free.

The town has thus far spent 280,000 kroons to make up for the storm ravages and could allocate a further 80,000 kroons from its present budget.

The tornado that hit Rakvere on July 15 killed one person and damaged 110 houses.