Hurricane Ike Six Months Later: Confronting the Challenges — in Partnership
AUSTIN, Texas - March 13 marks the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Ike's brutal assault on Texas. Over the past half year, the people and communities of the hard-hit upper Gulf Coast have worked relentlessly to recover from the storm and rebuild their lives. They have not been alone.
Although there is no fast or easy way to recover from a storm of Ike's magnitude, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its state and local partners are helping Texans confront each new challenge. Six months after the hurricane, with an infusion of more than $1.74 billion in federal funds - nearly $10 million per day - local communities, businesses and private citizens are repairing and rebuilding. The work is not complete, but the recovery effort is well under way.
"This anniversary is a solemn occasion for Texas. Lives were lost and many more lives have been severely disrupted because of the hurricane," said Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) Brad Harris. "But FEMA has been working hand in hand with the state of Texas and with individual Texans since Day One, and we will continue to meet the challenges together."
The nerve center of Hurricane Ike disaster relief efforts is the Texas/FEMA Joint Field Office (JFO) in Austin. Here, FEMA's top official in the state, FCO Harris, is working closely with State Coordinating Officer Joan Haun of the Governor's Division of Emergency Management (GDEM). Moreover, state and FEMA program specialists in public assistance, individual assistance, mitigation and other areas are working side by side throughout the JFO.
In all, hundreds of FEMA specialists in Austin, in the field and at Area Field Offices in the disaster zone are dedicated to ensuring that every Texan eligible for housing assistance is in a safe and secure dwelling, and that every federal dollar approved for Texas gets into the right hands.
At the same time, it is FEMA's job to ensure that the hard-earned dollars of taxpayers across the country are spent wisely- and not misused.
To date, FEMA has obligated more than $555 million in funding for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and public repair and rebuilding projects. Another $607 million has gone to individuals affected by the disaster, either as direct payments or for lodging expenses, while the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved more than $578 million in low-interest disaster loans for individuals, businesses of all sizes and private nonprofit groups: www.fema.gov/ike/BTN
"The federal contribution to our recovery efforts is greatly appreciated," said SCO Haun. "Texans are resilient people, but FEMA's hands-on assistance and its vast expertise in disaster recovery have provided welcome support."
As the recovery progresses, FEMA is forging ahead with its obligations, while the agency and its state and local partners are confronting the many challenges with creativity, innovation and a willingness to be flexible when circumstances change: www.fema.gov/ike/uniquely.
Over the past six months, FEMA and its partners have met the many challenges head on. To get specific information about each of the challenges, click on the thumbnail photos on the right.
CHALLENGE: Restore neighborhoods and give eligible Texans a hand up
Throughout the Hurricane Ike recovery effort, FEMA specialists have been in the field, on the phone and at scores of Disaster Recovery Centers, listening to applicants’ concerns, helping them apply for assistance and sometimes just offering a caring shoulder to cry on. By law, federal disaster assistance cannot duplicate insurance coverage, but through FEMA’s Individuals and Households program eligible Texans are getting grants to make their hurricane-damaged homes safe, sanitary and functional. With this program FEMA has helped put thousands of individuals and families on the road to recovery.
Meanwhile, for nearly six months the SBA has been hard at work, processing applications for low-interest disaster loans. These loans are the primary source of federal funds to pay for repairs or replacements of property not fully covered by insurance or other compensation. By making affordable loans, the SBA disaster program helps disaster victims pay for repairs while minimizing costs to taxpayers.
To date, more than $394 million in FEMA housing assistance grants has been disbursed to Texans, while the SBA has approved nearly 8,200 low-interest loans, worth more than $417 million, for homeowners and renters.
CHALLENGE: Move applicants from the TSA program into safe and secure housing
To ensure that families driven from their home because of Ike had a safe place to live, FEMA activated the Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program, providing direct payments to hotels that house eligible applicants.
FEMA understands, however, that living in a hotel or motel room isn't an ideal situation, especially for families with children or for those with special needs. In addition to the housing repair grant program, FEMA is working vigorously with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide rental assistance and case management through the Disaster Assistance Housing Program for Hurricane Ike (DHAP-Ike): www.hud.gov/offices/pih/publications/ike.cfm.
Nearly six months after the hurricane hit, FEMA specialists in housing, community relations and individual assistance remain in the field, many visiting displaced Texans at their hotels to discuss their needs and provide lists of available rental resources. Others are working with area landlords to encourage them to participate in the FEMA-funded and HUD-administered DHAP-Ike. The result is that hundreds of rental units are now listed with the program in hard-hit Galveston County alone.
FEMA and the state also are testing the Rental Repair Pilot Program in the city of Galveston. Under the program, FEMA funded the cost of repairing 32 units in a hurricane-damaged Galveston apartment complex for use by displaced Texans. Authorized under the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, the program is designed to be a cost-effective and timely method of getting displaced residents into temporary housing. More importantly, it aims to make use of existing rental housing in areas covered by a major disaster declaration
Today, some 2,600 individuals and families remain in hotels and motels, out of nearly 35,000 Texans assisted under the TSA program. Meanwhile, the number of participants in the DHAP-Ike program has climbed steadily to nearly 7,700 households. On March 13, eligible applicants remaining in hotels will be transitioned into FEMA's temporary housing program.
CHALLENGE: Provide temporary manufactured housing in areas where housing is not available
The Texas/FEMA Joint Housing Task Force determined within days of Ike’s landfall that the extent of the damage in certain areas warranted temporarily placing some individuals and families in mobile homes and other housing units. Working with the state, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, county and city governments and area utility companies, FEMA’s Direct Housing specialists have placed manufactured homes on private property, on commercial sites, as well as on new community sites in Bridge City, Galveston and High Island. Community sites are those built from the ground up as a result of the disaster.
To date, 3,577 individuals and families have occupied temporary housing units, or 97 percent of the households eligible for the direct housing program. Moreover, 120 households already have moved out of these units, most having returned to their repaired homes or found longer-term rental housing.
CHALLENGE: Help Texans overcome disaster-related hardships not related to housing
FEMA’s Other Needs Assistance is helping tens of thousands of Texans pay for disaster-related expenses, including those arising from medical and dental visits, lost or destroyed household items, vehicle repairs, moving and storage, and funerals and burials. This assistance is not meant to make people whole after a disaster, but it is helping eligible Texans put their lives back on track.
What’s more, FEMA responded quickly to these urgent needs, approving more than $3 million within 10 days of Ike’s landfall. That figure has now grown to more than $113 million.
By funding the state-run Disaster Unemployment Assistance program, FEMA also is putting money in the pockets of Texans who lost their jobs because of the disaster or who are unable to work because of a disaster-related injury or illness. This aid also has been extended to eligible self-employed business owners who lost all or part of their livelihood as a result of the hurricane.
To give every affected Texan an opportunity to apply for Disaster Unemployment Insurance, FEMA extended the deadline until Dec. 12, 2008, three times beyond the norm of 30 days after a disaster. Today, nearly 8,000 Texans have received this type of assistance.
CHALLENGE: Clean up millions of tons of debris left in Hurricane Ike’s wake
Providing reimbursement for debris removal is one of FEMA's top priorities, not only because piles of debris and toxic waste can cause disease, threaten roadway safety, and block emergency-response and construction equipment, but also because clean streets and canals symbolize revitalization in Texas' hurricane-ravaged communities.
In an effort to respond to Texas' needs, FEMA agreed to reimburse 100 percent of the cost of debris removal in eligible areas until April 26, 2009. To date, FEMA has approved more than 419 debris removal projects, and has obligated more than $267 million to cover the associated costs. To jump start the clean-up effort, FEMA advanced half the estimated funding for 49 debris removal projects immediately after the disaster.
To date, more than 95 percent of the debris has been cleaned up in areas eligible for FEMA reimbursement. That's more than 20 million cubic yards of waste, or a debris pile as big as a football field and nearly eight times the height of the Empire State Building.
CHALLENGE: Defray the state and local costs of implementing emergency protective measures
Throughout the first six months of the Ike recovery effort, FEMA and its partners in the Public Assistance (PA) program have focused largely on providing funds for projects categorized as emergency work: those aimed at implementing emergency protective measures during the early days of the disaster and on getting debris-choked thoroughfares cleared in Ike's aftermath.
To date, FEMA has approved nearly $265 million for costs associated with emergency protective measures. Included in that total is a $58 million grant to the GDEM to set up approximately 600 shelters and establish staging areas for ambulances, and for other expenses such as buses, food, bottled water, ice and generators. FEMA also has obligated funds for firefighters, special needs care teams and city public works crews that were deployed for disaster response in the impacted areas.
The funds are paid directly to the state, which administers the program and makes payments for the approved projects to local governments and certain private nonprofit groups.
CHALLENGE: Restore the quality of life in communities and stimulate local economies
By providing cost-shared grants to the state, and to local governments and certain nonprofit entities, FEMA’s PA branch also is helping to get local economies back on track. Thus far, it has approved more than $20 million to help fix damaged roads and bridges, put water control facilities and utilities back in operation, and repair buildings and recreational areas. For example, PA funds helped repair the hurricane-damaged roof of Houston’s Reliant Stadium in time for the March 3 opening of a major event, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.
FEMA also has obligated more than $99 million to Galveston’s University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), which sustained extensive damage when corrosive seawater from Ike’s storm surge inundated the basement and first-floor levels of many facilities on UTMB’s campus. The total includes costs for emergency protective measures at UTMB.
Also under review are projects to make repairs on thousands of miles of distribution lines run by 13 rural electric distribution cooperatives whose customers lost power as a result of the storm. FEMA Project Specialists have prepared Project Worksheets totaling more than $44 million for permanent repairs on the lines.
In addition, once clean-up and repair efforts were well under way along the Gulf Coast, FEMA kicked off a loan program aimed at helping local governments provide essential services and pay the salaries of firefighters, police officers and other essential personnel during the recovery effort.
The city of Galveston, the Galveston Park Board, the Sabine Pass Port Authority and the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District were among the first government entities to receive low-interest loans under FEMA’s Community Disaster Loan program for Hurricane Ike. Carried out in partnership with the state of Texas, the program provides operational funding to help local governments that have experienced a significant loss in revenue as a result of the disaster. Loans valued at more than $9 million have been approved thus far.
CHALLENGE: Rebuild safer, stronger — and better
Natural disasters are a fact of life, but devastation from them doesn’t have to be. To get this message to Texas homeowners and businesses, and share proven techniques for saving structures during violent storms or floods, FEMA’s expert Hazard Mitigation Community Education and Outreach Group has counseled more than 27,000 visitors at 83 Disaster Recovery Centers over the past six months.
The group also has met with more than 35,000 shoppers at home improvement centers and other retail outlets, and contacted others through nursing homes, community centers, child care centers and real estate associations. More than 86,500 FEMA publications, including some in multiple languages, have been handed out at these locations.
Among those publications are more than 20 full-color Best Practices brochures outlining successful mitigation steps homeowners and businesses took before Hurricane Ike hit Texas. One focuses on a Kemah homeowner who elevated his home, thus saving it from destruction during the storm: www.fema.gov/mitigationbp/brief.do?mitssId=6249. Another describes techniques The Daily News of Galveston County employed to build a strong structure and plan for continuing operations during a natural disaster: www.fema.gov/mitigationbp/brief.do?mitssId=6373. As a result of its efforts, the News never missed getting out an edition during the crisis.
The hazard mitigation group also provided plans to schools in Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange and elsewhere so students could transform donated materials into large model structures using building techniques that can make homes and businesses stronger and safer. The completed models are being displayed at various locations, including this month’s Houston Rodeo.
The FEMA/state mitigation group, local firefighters and the Red Cross also worked on a valuable classroom project to teach emergency preparedness to elementary school children. The first FEMA for Kids event was held in Houston on March 9, and several others are planned in the coming weeks.
CHALLENGE: Protect lives and prevent or reduce the loss of property during future disasters
While FEMA is providing tens of millions of dollars to Texans and Texas communities to help them recover from the immediate disaster and begin to rebuild their lives, the FEMA and state specialists in charge of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) are helping the upper Gulf Coast look to the future: www.fema.gov/government/grant/hmgp/.
By providing technical expertise and up to 75 percent of the funding for the state-administered HMGP, FEMA is helping eligible government entities and private nonprofit organizations implement long-term plans intended to mitigate the affects of the next natural disaster. These include home acquisitions and elevations, and drainage projects.
Already approved through the state’s “fast-track” HMGP program is a $6.9 million grant for the acquisition of 57 flood-prone homes in Jefferson County: www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47456. A total of $355 million is expected to be set aside for the Hurricane Ike HMGP.
CHALLENGE: Help local officials and insurance agents respond to Texans
When local officials found themselves short on resources just when their services were most in demand, FEMA specialists helped ease their burden by providing hands-on assistance at various locations. For example, two insurance specialists spent several weeks at the Galveston City Hall to share information about the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP): www.floodsmart.gov/. Insurance specialists also helped at offices in Bridge City, Beaumont and elsewhere. Additionally, 16 AmeriCorps staff working with FEMA staffed Galveston’s permitting office to assist with data entry, customer service and similar functions.
Just as local officials faced a sudden, overwhelming demand for their services, so too did insurance agents. FEMA insurance specialists made more than 1,000 visits to insurance agents and offices to provide information about the NFIP. The agency also offered a training workshop to dozens of area insurance agents.
In an effort to quicken the response, FEMA and the state of Texas also partnered to bring qualified personnel to the disaster areas to perform nearly 13,000 on-site inspections to help 14 communities determine the overall degree of damage to homes.
Meanwhile, hazard mitigation specialists from FEMA’s regional offices are working with local building officials and floodplain managers around the country to ensure communities are taking steps to mitigate future damages. For example, a massive project called map modernization is under way to provide digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps online: www.msc.fema.gov.
CHALLENGE: Reopen businesses and get employees back on the job
When it comes to getting businesses of all sizes back on their feet — and employees back to work — after the disaster, the SBA is taking a leading role by providing low-interest loans to repair damage to private property not covered by insurance. Loans may also include funds for mitigation measures to minimize damage from future storms.
The SBA also is making Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) to small businesses and certain private nonprofit organizations to help them meet their financial obligations until their operations are up and running again. Over the past six months, the SBA has authorized more than $161 million in low-interest disaster loans to businesses and private nonprofit organizations for both physical damage and economic injury.
FEMA’s Private Sector Office played an important role in connecting with the business community and assessing Ike’s impact on it. For example, FEMA Private Sector Liaisons met with dozens of local chambers of commerce to understand their members’ concerns and deliver relevant information about recovery programs.
FEMA’s administrator met with various private sector leaders to learn about their concerns and needs. From one of those meetings came a model for future disasters, the Employee Disaster Assistance Team (EDAT), first deployed to Orange’s “Chemical Row.” The EDAT — comprised of representatives from the state Health and Human Services Commission, the SBA, and FEMA Individual Assistance and Community Relations teams — delivered services to employees from more than a dozen businesses from a central location along Chemical Row.
The Private Sector Office and FEMA’s Area Field Office in Beaumont also reached out to the diverse, scattered population that earns its livelihood fishing the bays of the Gulf Coast. After meeting with members of the fishing community, Private Sector Liaisons were able to bring in other state and federal agencies, resulting in the first steps toward recovery for coastal fishermen.
CHALLENGE: Help hard-hit towns flourish in the years ahead
When Hurricane Ike crashed ashore, communities in Jefferson, Chambers and Galveston counties suffered some of the worst damages, with homes, businesses and public buildings severely damaged or destroyed. Facing the enormous burden of digging out, cleaning up and rebuilding for the future, some of their leaders turned to FEMA’s Long-Term Community Recovery team (LTCR) for assistance.
In response, the LTCR specialists have provided technical support and assessments of hundreds of properties in several towns. The team also hosted a video teleconference, inviting local leaders to hear from officials in towns around the country who have dealt with disasters in the past. The message Texas leaders heard was clear: Get the private sector, community organizations, citizens and the government together and use the disaster as a chance to make the community better. The Texans also received advice on ways to begin creating a vision for recovery, choosing projects, finding funding, coordinating efforts within a region, building a relationship between cities and counties, and collaborating with the state.
Jefferson, Chambers and Galveston counties, with a little help from FEMA’s LTCR team, have begun to take steps toward reaching their long-term recovery goals.
CHALLENGE: Get all Ike victims access to some form of help
Since days before the storm, voluntary organizations have been an integral part of FEMA's mission to provide support and guidance to affected Texans. The Red Cross and other organizations served hundreds of thousands of meals to evacuees, while many groups stepped in with clothing, medical supplies and other forms of assistance. Throughout these six months, FEMA’s partnership with Texas’ voluntary agencies has remained strong, and the agency has encouraged Texans to work with voluntary agencies when they're not eligible for federal assistance.
The partnership between FEMA and Texas’ voluntary agencies has now moved into the long-term recovery phase. FEMA’s Voluntary Agency Liaisons (VALs) in the field are working with Ike-affected communities to help them develop Long-Term Recovery Committees to serve victims of Hurricane Ike.
There currently are 10 Long-Term Recovery Committees in various stages of development in the counties of Galveston, Montgomery, Polk and others, while several other committees are moving toward development. In all, more than 150 local and national organizations are participating in rebuilding their communities and assisting their neighbors in need.
These voluntary organizations are providing services to Ike victims that include case management, home repair and roof tarping, assistance with utilities and prescriptions, debris removal, and spiritual and mental health care. The VALs provide technical assistance and guidance to the communities as they form long-term recovery plans for their communities.
CHALLENGE: Keep all stakeholders up to date with the latest information
In order to be responsive to the public it serves, FEMA has both a duty and a need to ensure its actions are as transparent as possible. From the moment the National Hurricane Center suggested Ike was heading toward the Lone Star State, one of the top challenges facing GDEM and FEMA has been to keep Texans informed — in every way possible.
At the beginning, the focus was on providing information on ways people could prepare for the disaster, as well as on the state/FEMA effort to mobilize resources ahead of Ike’s landfall. Once the storm struck, the message shifted to the massive federal, state and local response, and then to the recovery effort.
Just ahead of the six-month anniversary, FEMA redesigned its Hurricane Ike Web site: www.fema.gov/ike. New on the site is a weekly message by FCO Brad Harris on various aspects of the recovery process and the FEMA/state efforts to help affected Texans overcome the disaster. The site also includes new county-by-county updates on recovery efforts, as well as a regularly updated widget addressing a weekly topic.
For its part, FEMA’s External Affairs branch has written more than 500 news releases, public service announcements and fact sheets since the days before Ike hit, while the News Desk at the FEMA/state Joint Information Center (JIC) in Austin has worked with FEMA’s public information officers, photographers and videographers in the field to provide information and documentation to the media across the disaster areas.
FEMA also has responded to requests for information and for creative responses to unique situations from Texas’ federal and state lawmakers, county judges and city officials. The agency’s Congressional Affairs staff has worked vigorously to respond to the more than 1,300 calls it has received and to provide up-to-the-minute reports about FEMA actions affecting the citizens and communities of the affected federal districts. Over the same period, FEMA’s city/county liaisons based at the Area Field Offices have worked regularly with local officials throughout the disaster areas.
FEMA’s Community Relations specialists have visited with tens of thousands of Texans, in their homes or temporary lodgings, at shelters, at Disaster Recovery Centers and at scores of meetings of faith- and community-based groups. These caring individuals were often the first face victims saw after the disaster, and they continue to provide one-on-one services to hundreds of individuals and families.
Working the phones and walking neighborhoods, FEMA’s Individual Assistance and housing specialists also have kept Texas individuals and families informed of the progress of their applications and their housing options, and responded to their unique needs.
FEMA also has stayed on the cutting edge of multimedia technology by offering more than a dozen online webisodes that capture real-life dramas occurring in the hurricane response and recovery effort. These short videos, highlighting urban search and rescue efforts, the temporary housing project, mitigation activities, volunteerism and other topics, are being presented on FEMA’s multimedia site at www.fema.gov/media/multimedia.
FEMA also is using social media tools such as YouTube, www.youtube.com/fema, and Twitter, www.twitter.com/femainfocus, to broadcast vignettes about the recovery mission and to provide the latest FEMA information.
CHALLENGE: Ensure that every Ike-affected Texan registered with FEMA
For more than five months FEMA’s message to Texans affected by Ike remained constant: Register, register, register!
That doesn’t mean FEMA expected to provide monetary assistance to everyone who registered. In fact, as a steward of taxpayer money, FEMA does not duplicate insurance benefits, nor does it pay for such things as repairs to vacation homes or for repairs that should have been made to a primary residence during the course of normal, pre-disaster maintenance.
FEMA urged Texans to register before the Feb. 20 deadline because the agency may help with some things not covered by insurance, as well as with temporary housing and rental costs. To ensure that eligible Texans receive all the assistance they qualify for, FEMA specialists will continue to process applications and contact homeowners, renters and businesses for as long as necessary.
Additionally, Texans were implored to register with FEMA because for many people registration is the first step to receiving an application for an SBA low-interest disaster loan. Completing the application is necessary in order to be considered for some forms of FEMA assistance, such as damage to personal property.
FEMA and the SBA extended the deadline to register for assistance and apply for loans four times, each time notifying the public via the print and broadcast media, as well as other channels. For example, FEMA’s Community Relations staff knocked on thousands of doors throughout the disaster area and met with scores of faith-based and community-based organizations to stress the importance of registering.
To better communicate with those residents who do not understand English, FEMA placed bilingual and multilingual specialists in the field who speak a total of 14 languages and dialects, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Cambodian and American Sign Language.
FEMA and the state also have operated more than 130 Disaster Recovery Centers and Mobile Registration Intake Centers in many of the 34 counties designated for Individual Assistance. This is so Texans could get personal attention from FEMA specialists, experts from the SBA, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies. A recovery centers remains open in Galveston, while the SBA continues to operate Disaster Loan Outreach Centers and Business Assistance Centers in several cities.
It is never easy to recover from a catastrophic event — and Hurricane Ike was one of the most damaging in our nation’s history. FEMA, the state of Texas, scores of local governments and hundreds of voluntary agencies have worked tirelessly to meet the challenges posed by this disaster. The recovery process will continue to take time, patience and thoughtful decisions to address any new challenge. But FEMA is committed to being in Texas, working side by side with Texans, for the long haul.
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Disaster recovery assistance is available without regard to race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency or economic status. If you or someone you know has been discriminated against, call FEMA toll-free at 800-621-FEMA (3362). For TTY call 800-462-7585.
FEMA’s temporary housing assistance and grants for public transportation expenses, medical and dental expenses, and funeral and burial expenses do not require individuals to apply for an SBA loan. However, applicants who receive SBA loan applications must submit them to SBA loan officers to be eligible for assistance that covers personal property, vehicle repair or replacement, and moving and storage expenses.
The SBA is the federal government’s primary source of money for the long-term rebuilding of disaster-damaged private property. SBA helps homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and private nonprofit organizations fund repair or rebuilding efforts, and cover the cost of replacing lost or disaster-damaged personal property. These disaster loans cover uninsured and uncompensated losses and do not duplicate benefits of other agencies or organizations. For information about SBA programs, applicants may call 1-800-659-2955, or TTY 1-800-877-8339.
FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation, to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the nation from all hazards including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 07-Apr-2009 18:38:56 EDT
Fast Facts
DISASTER CHALLENGES
Restore neighborhoods and give eligible Texans a hand up.
Move applicants from the TSA program into safe and secure housing.
Provide temporary manufactured housing in areas where housing is not available.
Help Texans overcome disaster-related hardships not related to housing.
Clean up millions of tons of debris left in Hurricane Ike's wake.
Defray the state and local costs of implementing emergency protective measures.
Restore the quality of life in communities and stimulate local economies.
Rebuild safer, stronger -- and better.
Protect lives and prevent or reduce the loss of property during future disasters.
Help local officials and insurance agents respond to Texans.
Reopen businesses and get employees back on the job.
Help hard-hit towns flourish in the years ahead.
Get all Ike victims access to some form of help.
Keep all stakeholders up to date with the latest information.
Ensure that every Ike-affected Texan registered with FEMA.