Hurricanes, wildfire recovery efforts costing $200M per day
Hurricane Harvey’s blast through Texas likely will prove the costliest in a string of historically powerful storms that battered the United States in recent weeks, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Tuesday.
Long, testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said the U.S. is spending more than $200 million per day in recovery efforts for the “unprecedented” hurricanes and California fires that destroyed more than 6,000 homes.
The federal government has provided $52 billion in relief aid, and Long said more money likely will be needed.
“I’ve been in office 132 days,” Long said. “For 70 of those days we have been actively responding to (hurricanes) Harvey, Irma and Maria and the extraordinary California wildfires.”
In Puerto Rico, Long said power has been restored to about 30% of the island. Water has been restored to about 80% of residents and communications and cell service to about 85%.
Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., said merely restoring the power is not enough for the island. Long said the mandate is to repair, not upgrade.
“We will have failed in our responsibilities collectively if we helped rebuild an electric grid in Puerto Rico that is just as vulnerable” as before the storm, Carper said.