Ike recovery funds headed to Texas

Special to The Leader

June 11, 2009 06:40 pm

— Much needed funds are on the way to Texas to help Hurricane Ike affected communities continue on the road to recovery.
On Wednesday, U.S. Representative Kevin Brady (R-Texas 8th District), who helped lead congressional efforts in Congress to secure funding for Hurricane Ike recovery in Texas, applauded the federal government’s announcement Wednesday of $1.7 billion to help communities in Texas rebuild housing and infrastructure destroyed by Hurricane Ike.
Since January, Brady has been urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to release the second wave of funding that Congress had allocated late last fall. Texas receives $1.7 billion of the allotted $3.9 billion allocated to 11 states HUD within the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for long-term disaster recovery.
“It took longer than we had hoped but our recovery needs remain great in southeast Texas, so our communities are pleased that more help is headed our way”, said Brady said in a press release.
CDBG funds will be used to provide housing assistance, rebuild local critical infrastructure destroyed by the storm, repair our waterways and ports, repair schools and universities, and to provide needed funding to help our small- and medium-sized businesses rebuild.
Hurricane Ike was the third most destructive hurricane to hit the United States and the costliest to come through Texas.