Texas gets more hurricane aid
In a Friday announcement at a Houston medical clinic that cared for evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced the distribution of the $1 billion for Gulf Coast relief remaining after Louisiana's cut of $4.2 billion.Good job Kevin Brady! It's been frustrating to see the federal government act like Louisiana -- and New Orleans in particular -- was the only place that was damaged.Breakdown of the $973 million total by state is:
For many, it was the culmination of months-long efforts to rectify what had been perceived as a massive shortchanging of Texas in the first round of Gulf Coast recovery grants. The state got less than 1 percent of the first $11.5 billion made available for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida in the wakes of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.Alabama, $21,225,574
Florida, $100,066,518
Mississippi, $423,036,059
Texas, $428,671,849Rita struck Texas on Sept. 24, less than a month after Katrina ripped New Orleans and the neighboring Mississippi coast to pieces.
As Jackson pointed out during his announcement, Texas had opened up for evacuees after Katrina and then had to cope with its own devastation.
Jackson was flanked by U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands. Texas Railroad Commission member Michael Williams also was in the group.
Brady had convinced Jackson to tour the devastation in East and Southeast Texas, seeing that the federal official eventually inspected about 1,100 square miles for himself to see that Texas needed help.
It's good to see our congressional delegation working together. It's frustrating that it's taken this long.
Posted by Evan @ 08/19/06 02:07 PM
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
Comments
Add Comments
No flames or impolite behavior. HTML will be stripped. URLs will be transformed into hyperlinks.