Texas Governor Appeals for Aid for Harvey Recovery

The governor of Texas said Sunday that the “long haul” of recovery from Hurricane Harvey was just beginning, appealing to Congress to provide tens of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction.

In the nation’s fourth-largest city of Houston, which was devastated by record-setting rainfall, many residents whose homes had flooded returned over the weekend to begin removing soggy drywall, soaked carpets and ruined possessions.

A week of flooding damaged 40,000 to 50,000 homes in Houston and sent tens of thousands of people fleeing to emergency shelters.

“The rebuilding process, this is where the long haul begins,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is where we come to the part where Congress plays a role.”

The White House has asked Congress for $7.85 billion for Harvey-related “response and initial recovery efforts,” calling it a “down payment” on the long-term cost of recovering from the record flooding.

In the end, Abbott said, recovery will cost “well over $120 billion, probably $150 billion to $180 billion.”

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has said the administration will later seek an additional $6.7 billion for disaster relief.

The storm was blamed for at least 42 deaths, with The Houston Chronicle saying the toll of people who died or were feared dead was more than 50.

Yet Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner urged people who had been planning on travelling to Houston not to cancel their trips, saying the city was now 95 percent dry.

“I want to be very clear. Yes, it was a very serious storm, historic, unprecedented, but the city of Houston is open for business.”

“And so if you have a conference, convention, concert, any of those things that were planning to come to this city, we are still ready to welcome you,” Turner said, adding that city employees would be back at work on Tuesday, following the US Labor Day holiday on Monday.