It’s been nearly 10 years since Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston, and government agencies are still working to complete recovery projects before a state-imposed deadline.
Thursday marks a decade since Ike made landfall and swamped parts of the island city, leaving more than $29 billion worth of damage and 37 deaths.
Officials are working to finish as many recovery projects as possible before the state’s December 2019 deadline so the city can be reimbursed for the work.
Galveston has eight U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development projects currently underway, including street and sewer work and a pump station. City Council is scheduled to vote on additional Ike-related projects Thursday.
Parts of Texas are also still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, which hit last year.
Here’s some grim back-of-the-envelope math for insurers: Hurricane Florence may wreak $15 billion to $20 billion in covered losses from wind and coastal storm-surge, if the past is any guide, according to catastrophe modeler Risk Management Solutions.
That range is based on benchmarking two similar hurricanes from decades past — Hazel in 1954 and Hugo in 1989 — and translating their damage into present-day figures, according to Tom Sabbatelli, an event response manager at RMS. It doesn’t include the potential cost of inland flooding.
