COSTLIEST ’CANE EVER
Price tag could hit $180B Would dwarf Sandy, Katrina – Tex. gov
THE PRICE TAG of Hurricane Harvey could be as high as $180 billion, exceeding the cost of Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.
The monstrous hurricane that came ashore Aug. 25 has killed at least 47 people, displaced more than 1 million, devastated an area spanning more than 300 miles and is still causing flooding as officials release water from swollen reservoirs.
Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans in 2005. New York City and the surrounding region are still recovering from Sandy, which hit in 2012.
“Katrina caused, if I recall, more than $120 billion, but when you look at the number of homes and business affected by this, I think this will cost well over $120 billion, probably $150 to $180 billion,” Abbott told Fox News, adding, “This is far larger than Hurricane Sandy.”
He called the initial $7.85 billion requested by President Trump for recovery efforts a “down payment.”
“This is a long road to hoe if we are going to rebuild the fourth-largest city in the United States as well as the entire geographic region,” Abbott said.
Trump spoke optimistically about a return to normalcy in Texas during his visit Saturday, saying the state likely wouldn’t need an estimated three years to bounce back. “I think because this is Texas you’ll probably do it in six months, I have a feeling,” Trump said.
Abbott, however, was more cautious on ABC’S “This Week.”
“We know that Texans will respond robustly. However, that said, when you consider the hundreds of thousands of homes that have been destroyed and impacted by this, we need to understand, this is going to take a long time,” Abbott said. “It would be insane for us to rebuild on property that has been flooded multiple times.”
In parts of west Houston, officials went door to door warning residents that more flooding was coming as controlled releases of water from overcapacity reservoirs were conducted.
Crews urged residents whose
homes had already taken on water to leave.
Power was being cut in some areas. “If you have water in your homes, I have issued a mandatory evacuation for them because it’s dangerous for those who are choosing to live there,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But also, it’s very, very dangerous for our public responders, first responders, who are needing to be out there, trying to provide protection to them.”
Meanwhile, outside Houston in the town of Crosby, Tex., officials were planning a controlled burn of unstable compounds in three trailers at the Arkema chemical plant. The trailers had ignited in recent days. “We are concerned that, without ignition, we can’t determine if the hazard has been fully eliminated,” Arkema said, adding it would create an ignition through “controlled means.”
In Beaumont, Tex., population almost 120,000, officials worked to repair a water treatment plant that failed after the Neches River flooded the main intake system and backup pumps halted.
The Army Corps of Engineers sent pumps, and an ExxonMobil team built and installed a temporary intake pipe to try to refill a city reservoir.
Concerns also continued about measures being taken to prevent the spread of toxins from 13 Superfund sites that were flooded by Harvey.
The Environmental Protection Agency — which said it had conducted assessments of the sites through “aerial imaging” — released a statement lashing out at an Associated Press reporter who wrote about the sites. The agency did not deny that EPA officials had yet to visit the intensely contaminated Superfund sites.
Texans began to bury the dead and take early steps on the long road to recovery. Up to 12,000 students will be sent to different schools because of flood-damaged buildings.
Maria Martinez, 63, waited for insurance adjusters to come to her daughter’s home in the South Belt/Ellington neighborhood, a devastated middle-class area of southeast Houston. “You can be prepared for anything but not a monster storm like Harvey,” she said.