Texas will receive about $1 billion in hazard mitigation funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by the August anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, and half of that money is available immediately. The funds can be used for retrofitting houses and buildings to withstand hurricane-force winds, building storm surge protection projects, buying out flooded structures and elevating structures above floodplains, and restoring floodwalls, seawalls, jetties and sand dunes. The FEMA money covers three-quarters of project costs, and Gov. Greg Abbott says funding has been secured to cover the remaining 25 percent.
Texas is also poised to receive $5 billion in Community Development Block Grants that Congress allocated last fall for long-term Harvey recovery work, plus a yet-to-be-determined portion of the $89 billion in disaster relief Congress approved in February as part of the federal budget agreement.
