August 25th, 2017 is a day that most if not all Texans will remember for years to come. Hurricane Harvey devastated those in the Gulf Coast region for more than 72 hours and since, citizens of the region have been eagerly waiting to see what the response would be from our local, state, and federal entities.
The first allocation of funds to help our region recover is received by the Harris County Flood Control District and equals $25.6 million dollars. This allocation of FEMA- HMGP or Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money requires $8.6 million dollars of local match. This translates to 169 homes that can be bought out because they are “hopelessly deep in the floodplain where structural projects to reduce flooding are not cost effective and/or beneficial.”
The remaining $137.9 million dollars in funding, requested by the Flood Control District, is still under reviewed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The additional funding would be used for further buyouts that total about 1000 homes throughout the entire region.
Harris County Commissioners recently called for a bond election to be held August 25th, 2018, the one year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey. This bond election will likely need to be at least $2.5 billion dollars to support further flood protection methods such as buyouts, channel improvements, and other resiliency efforts. This means that to employ any additional funds toward the 1000 home buyouts, the court must authorize a local match of $54.5 million.
We encourage you to go out to the local public meetings throughout the 23 watersheds and get more informed on the need for a Harris County bond election.
For more information about how to participate in a potential home buyout, please contact the Flood Control District at (713) 684-4020 or visit www.hcfcd.org/homebuyout. Read the entire press release here PRESS RELEASE