October 19, 2008
Five weeks after Hurricane Ike made landfall, state and federal financial assistance to help Texas homeowners, renters and businesses recover from uninsured and under insured losses exceeds $316 million according to a FEMA press release this week.
As of Thursday, Oct. 16 the Texas statistics are:
- $261 million approved in grants for individuals. Of that, more than $216 million was for housing and more than $45 million for other disaster-related needs.
- $55.4 million in disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Of that, $50.1 million was for home loans and $5.3 million for businesses.
- More than 703,000 individuals have applied for disaster assistance by from FEMA.
- Nearly 306,000 damaged properties have been reviewed by FEMA inspectors.
I am told that the FEMA inspectors are close to completing their assessments of the damages to houses. Once those damage inspections are reported the cost estimates for housing repairs can be generated.
Time will tell as to whether the FEMA estimates are accurate this time. In the wake of Hurricane Rita there were wide discrepancies between the FEMA estimates and the damage estimates of state and local officials.
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