Yes, we are safer today than we were during Harvey
Seeing our neighbors in Louisiana suffer the effects of Ida, one of the strongest storms to make landfall in recent memory, is a somber reminder that but for the grace of God goes Houston. This same week four years ago, we were reeling from Hurricane Harvey, when it dumped 52 inches of rain on the region over just four days, in a storm that will certainly be remembered as a defining moment for the area.
Unfortunately, these storms are not going away any time soon. Weather events like this are coming with greater intensity, and even before being appointed to chair the Climate Mayors and Resilient Cities Network, creating a stronger and more resilient city has been a top priority for my administration. We need to set a higher bar for our infrastructure. We need to make climate resilience a priority by advancing innovation in infrastructure projects.
In the four years since Hurricane Harvey, I’m proud to say the city has invested $780 million in infrastructure repairs from local funding for fully completed projects. This is more than rebuilding the properties that were destroyed. It’s focusing on communities and people. It’s improving local drainage infrastructure, creating new regional detention areas and investing more than $500 million in capital improvement projects that focus on drainage. We are investing $50 million in state grant funds, supplementing over $120 million of previous federal and state grant funds, for additional dredging of Lake Houston. We have dedicated $34.7 million to projects identified as a priority by our Storm Water Action Team, with 142 total projects constructed by the end of this fiscal year. The city has acquired 10 properties totaling 357.6 acres of new detention at the cost of $70.5 million. Additionally, the city has elevated more than 260 homes since Harvey through FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance program, and many more homes are