Ike's Damage Adds Up To Billions In Houston Area
POSTED: Tuesday, October 21, 2008
UPDATED: 5:38 pm CDT October 21,
2008
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HOUSTON -- The destruction from Hurricane Ike will cost Houston and Harris County up to $10 billion, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.
Video:
Ike Costs Houston, Harris County Billions
Houston and Harris County leaders got together to talk about how much damage Hurricane Ike caused, focusing mainly on residential areas. A survey included 29,000 aerial photos and inspectors looking at 126,000 homes.Officials said the best estimate shows that residential damage could add up to between $8.5 billion and $10 billion. That includes damage to homes, apartments and mobile homes. In Houston alone, the damage is as much as $2.5 billion.On the good end of the scale, homes are simply marked by blue tarps covering roof damage. On the other end, the damage reaches devastation."In Shoreacres, you have 675 homes -- 512 are more than 50 percent destroyed. Seabrook -- you have another 1,000 homes that have at least four feet of water in those," said Guy Rankin with the Harris County Housing Authority.The Harris County Housing Authority added up the damage and created a map of damage estimates. Southeast Harris County was hardest hit."We feel like we're going to have a very accurate assessment of both what the monetary damage is going to be as well as the physical damage per type for all of the properties within Harris County," said Sharon Murphy with the Disaster Housing Program.The damage estimates will help get money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency."It is extraordinarily important that we give them accurate information and we give them a full, accurate picture of what residential damage was," said Casey Wallace, with the Harris County Housing Authority Board.The cleanup after Hurricane Ike is adding up quickly. Tree removal and clearing debris from roadways will be a major cost."We're still working through what our damage to infrastructure is," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said. "Everything from parks, for example, that got damaged to roads. Obviously, the Washburn Tunnel was impacted. A lot of buildings were impacted."The report is expected to be completed by December. There are 200 inspectors helping with the survey."At this point, what we're doing is working as closely as we can with FEMA," Emmett said.Hurricane Ike came ashore on Sept. 13 with the eye crossing over Galveston Island.
Copyright 2008 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Video:
Ike Costs Houston, Harris County Billions Houston and Harris County leaders got together to talk about how much damage Hurricane Ike caused, focusing mainly on residential areas. A survey included 29,000 aerial photos and inspectors looking at 126,000 homes.Officials said the best estimate shows that residential damage could add up to between $8.5 billion and $10 billion. That includes damage to homes, apartments and mobile homes. In Houston alone, the damage is as much as $2.5 billion.On the good end of the scale, homes are simply marked by blue tarps covering roof damage. On the other end, the damage reaches devastation."In Shoreacres, you have 675 homes -- 512 are more than 50 percent destroyed. Seabrook -- you have another 1,000 homes that have at least four feet of water in those," said Guy Rankin with the Harris County Housing Authority.The Harris County Housing Authority added up the damage and created a map of damage estimates. Southeast Harris County was hardest hit."We feel like we're going to have a very accurate assessment of both what the monetary damage is going to be as well as the physical damage per type for all of the properties within Harris County," said Sharon Murphy with the Disaster Housing Program.The damage estimates will help get money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency."It is extraordinarily important that we give them accurate information and we give them a full, accurate picture of what residential damage was," said Casey Wallace, with the Harris County Housing Authority Board.The cleanup after Hurricane Ike is adding up quickly. Tree removal and clearing debris from roadways will be a major cost."We're still working through what our damage to infrastructure is," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said. "Everything from parks, for example, that got damaged to roads. Obviously, the Washburn Tunnel was impacted. A lot of buildings were impacted."The report is expected to be completed by December. There are 200 inspectors helping with the survey."At this point, what we're doing is working as closely as we can with FEMA," Emmett said.Hurricane Ike came ashore on Sept. 13 with the eye crossing over Galveston Island.
Copyright 2008 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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