Skip to content

Rebuilding Lives, Revitalizing Communities: Texas

Rebuilding Lives, Revitalizing Communities - Five Years after Katrina and Rita

Texas Recovery Efforts Five Years After Katrina and Rita

PDF icon Download Fact Sheet

 Share on Facebook

Twitter Icon Share on Twitter


Katrina and Rita Recovery
2005-2010
  • 480,000 Texans registered for assistance
  • $623 million distributed to families and individuals
  • $647.7 million reimbursed to Texas to save lives, protect property and remove debris
  • $266.3 million obligated to help communities repair and rebuild
  • $103 million to mitigate against future damages

FEMA coordinated volunteer workers with Habitat for Humanity as they teamed up with major league baseball to build houses.
FEMA coordinated volunteer workers with Habitat for Humanity as they teamed up with major league baseball to build houses. These houses were transported to Louisiana for disaster survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 
Hurricane Rita devastated communities throughout Texas, and came on the heels of one of the most destructive disasters in our nation’s history. Texas faced the dual challenge of helping its residents prepare for and recover from Rita, while also supporting the many Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina’s landfall.

Under the leadership of the Obama Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has launched a number of initiatives to improve the pace of ongoing, and future, recovery efforts to help rebuild the communities that are the economic engines of the Gulf Coast. All of these efforts have focused on finding innovative solutions to better support state and local officials, remove bureaucratic red tape, and give residents the assistance they need to move forward.

Initiatives

Support for States Sheltering Evacuees
In November 2009, FEMA announced a final rule that streamlines the reimbursement process for states (host-states) that provide shelter for residents that evacuated from presidentially declared disaster areas. Under the new rule, host-states can be directly reimbursed by FEMA for the base salary costs for state and local employees providing assistance as part of the host-state sheltering grant from FEMA, rather than reimbursing through a lengthier, more time-intensive, mutual aid process that requires reimbursement through the impacted state.

Immediately following Hurricane Katrina displaced Gulf Coast residents were temporarily sheltered at the Houston Astrodome
Immediately following Hurricane Katrina displaced Gulf Coast residents were temporarily sheltered at the Houston Astrodome. 
Streamlined Process to Accelerate Recovery
On August 6 2009, Secretary Napolitano announced a new arbitration process to expedite resolution of outstanding public assistance projects from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as an alternative to the previous bureaucratic appeals process. Under this new process, neutral, third-party panels adjudicate disputes – allowing some of the most difficult and complex disputes to get resolved. To date, no projects are pending through the arbitration process in Texas.

Expanding Access to Critical Information
In April 2010, Administrator Fugate announced the launch of FEMA's new mobile Web site, m.fema.gov. The mobile Web site makes it easier to access critical information regarding emergency preparedness and what to do before and after a disaster right on a Smartphone.

The mobile Web site was further expanded in July to include a new feature to the m.fema.gov mobile platform, making it easier for disaster survivors to apply for help directly from FEMA and other federal partners through their web enabled mobile phone devices.

As Smartphones become cheaper and more prevalent, and wireless networks more resilient, these devices are becoming more than just simple communication tools – they can be life lines during emergencies.

"Smartphones are becoming more prevalent, affordable, reliable and more viable to locate and obtain information and assistance. This service will provide yet another avenue for the sharing of important information that is so critical to ensuring the public is prepared for emergencies. As we've seen in recent cases, often times after a disaster, mobile devices become a crucial lifeline to provide information to survivors."
Craig Fugate
FEMA Administrator

Accomplishments

The impact that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had on the Lone Star State is noteworthy in that for Katrina, Texas managed a massive sheltering operation for more than a hundred thousand evacuees who were in harm’s way. Less than a month after Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, Rita made a beeline for the Louisiana/Texas border near Beaumont, eventually leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and affecting thousands of Texans.

Individual Assistance
More than 480,000 Texans were eligible to receive FEMA assistance following Hurricane Rita. That aid included rental assistance, temporary lodging and housing repairs. Texans received funding to cover personal property loss, medical costs, and other serious disaster-related expenses that were not covered by insurance.

As part of the FEMA response, disaster recovery centers were opened near affected communities and nearly half a million people visited these centers. In all, nearly $1 billion in Individual Assistance (IA) funding and SBA low-interest disaster loans went towards Rita’s recovery in Texas. A temporary housing program provided more than 4,600 Texas households left homeless by Hurricane Rita with temporary disaster housing units. That program has since ended and all of the households in the program have transitioned to more long-term housing.

Public Assistance
Funding for the removal of debris, emergency protective measures and the repair and rebuilding of infrastructure totaled nearly $400 million dollars for Hurricane Rita only in Texas. While more than 3,300 project worksheets, which are generated to document eligible work and costs, have been completed; only 270 projects remain open.

Public Assistance – Sheltering
From Dallas to Tyler and Houston to Galveston, many Texas cities provided a safe haven for Katrina evacuees. More than 200 public shelters were opened and many Texas hotels welcomed evacuees for temporary stays.

Texas received an emergency declaration from FEMA, enabling the state to be reimbursed for shelter operating costs, transportation services, overtime costs for emergency operation centers and emergency medical care. FEMA also funded the costs for applicants’ transitional housing needs.

Recovery Photos

Last Modified: Wednesday, 22-Sep-2010 08:53:36 EDT