State plan calls for small sliver of hurricane relief for Valley

EDINBURG - A disaster recovery plan based on "woefully underestimated" Federal Emergency Management Agency damage estimates could end up costing the Rio Grande Valley millions that officials were counting on for Hurricane Dolly relief.

Valley officials are calling for revisions to the state's preliminary regional allocations for the more than $1.3 billion that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is sending for for long-term disaster recovery.

Under the state's preliminary plan, Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties would receive about $15 million from Hurricane Dolly while a 28-county area hit hard by Ike would receive more than $1 billion.

In addition, the state would keep more than $260 million for administrative costs and planning activities.

A report submitted to state officials at a public hearing earlier this week indicates Hidalgo County alone had more than $230 million in Dolly damages, most of which was not eligible for FEMA reimbursement.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said the figures are indication Ike's damage is overriding Dolly's.

"Indirectly, Ike is affecting us," Salinas said. "That doesn't mean we didn't have needs. That doesn't mean we didn't have people get displaced from their homes. That's the message we're trying to get across."

FEMA FORMULA

The state's Office of Rural Community Affairs, the administrator of the HUD money, used preliminary FEMA damage estimates to calculate the distribution.

The damage estimates were plugged into a formula that allocated funds based on damage, said Julie Kelly, a spokeswoman for the office.

The Houston-Galveston area, for example, received about 77 percent of the total damage from last year's hurricanes and would thus receive about 77 percent of the HUD money, or $814 million.

The funds are intended to make repairs to homes, improve infrastructure and reverse other damage caused by the storm.

The funds may not be used for activities reimbursed by FEMA in the immediate aftermath of the storms.

But much of the damage Hidalgo County sustained in Dolly is not reimbursable by FEMA, Salinas said. That includes about $17 million in damage to drainage systems and $19 million in agricultural losses.

FEMA actually estimated Valley housing damage from Dolly at $50 million, while the county puts the figure at $165 million.

Hidalgo County had 16,831 applications for housing assistance that were sent to FEMA, but the agency approved less than 6,000.

Salinas said many of those applications would also not receive consideration in the HUD program because of a lack of resources in the state's plan.

The problem for the Valley is that FEMA's damage estimates for Ike dwarf its estimates for Dolly.

FEMA reported the Houston-Galveston Area Council received more than twice the damage to houses - or $2.6 billion - that is allocated to the entire state for the HUD program.

Gov. Rick Perry's office pegs total damage from 2008's storms at close to $30 billion, and the immediate relief funds from FEMA and the long-term recovery funds from HUD barely begin to cover the total, which limits the Valley's take.

Still, officials are trying to convince the state to send more money to the Valley for the program by adjusting the regional allocations or reducing the amount kept at the state level for planning and administration.

"The problematic thing is the level of funding we're getting," said Ken Jones, the executive director of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council. "They used preliminary estimates that were woefully underestimated."

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.