Kewanee residents and business owners can apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for reimbursement of their costs to recover from the July 15 tornado.

But the city isn’t eligible for FEMA assistance, City Manager Gary Bradley said during Monday’s City Council meeting.

Clearing away all the brush left behind by the three tornadoes that hit the city will be a massive job. Bradley has estimated the cost at $400,000.

Besides the cost, he said, the job will require extensive manpower and equipment that the city doesn’t have.

“We can’t do this by ourselves,” Bradley said.

So city officials will meet Thursday with officials from the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Henry County Office of Emergency Management to arrange for help.

Bradley said the city wants to borrow equipment and manpower from IDOT to get all of the debris from the storm cleaned up. That includes tree trunks that are too big for any of the city’s equipment to handle.

The first priority of the cleanup, he said, are those things the city can’t handle on its own.

City officials announced last week that the city has resumed its brush pickup service for residents who have smaller, more manageable loads of brush. There is a fee for the pickup service; residents can purchase brush stickers at City Hall.

For larger loads, residents can call City Hall to have a city empoyee come out and provide determine the cost of the pickup.

According to a news release from FEMA over the weekend, Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621-3362 or by using the FEMA app.