$81B: Enough to Defend Against the Next Harvey?

The House GOP recently unveiled $81 billion in disaster aid for areas hit by Hurricane Harvey, and impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and California wildfires. Sylvester Turner, Houston’s mayor, told Houston Public Media he wasn’t happy with the speed or scale of federal help, to date, which consists of $5 billion from HUD.

What also irritates the Houston mayor is that the HUD money is for disaster relief. Not prevention. Calling the money “funding for failure,” “we know that there will be another storm coming in ’18, ’19, ’20,” Turner said.

Jeff Nielson of the Houston Contractors Association said flood prevention should include strengthening existing reservoirs, widening bayous and creating a gulf surge system. The system, alone, could run $12 billion. However, only $10 billion is allotted to flood prevention as part of the GOP bill, which would be shared by Florida and Puerto Rico.

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