Texas/Harvey Relief Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Houston, Texas alone by Hurricane Harvey. The long-term damage from the catastrophic flooding engulfing the US’s Gulf Coast is expected to cost companies, small businesses, and homeowners as much as $100 billion, according to Imperial Capital..
While big corporations will probably survive the hit, many individual homeowners in Houston could be forced into debt or bankruptcy because they don’t have flood insurance.
As of August 2016, just 15% of the 1.6 million homes in Harris County, wh ere Houston is located, had flood insurance, according to emailed data from the Insurance Information Institute, and only 28% of the homes in “high-risk” areas for flooding.
Emergency Management so far estimates a total of 185,149 homes in the Lone Star state have been damaged or destroyed by Harvey. Harris County officials estimate 30,000 to 40,000 homes have been destroyed in the Houston area alone.
Meanwhile, about 80 percent of Texans don't have flood insurance. But this time, even that may not be true. Although Texas and Louisiana—owing to the constant threat of floods—are among some of the places in the United States where flood insurance is most prevalent, there are few places where even a quarter of all homes are covered. In Houston, just over 119,000 places are covered by flood insurance policies backed by the National Flood Insurance Program, which helps fund most flood insurance policies. There are just over 800,000 occupied housing units in the city, which means that somewhere under a sixth of all homes in the city have flood insurance. The situation is the same in Corpus Christi, where 19,183 buildings are insured of around 115,000 occupied housing units.
The dearth of flood insurance policies makes the result obvious: Most people who lose homes or have them damaged in Harvey won’t have money to replace or repair them. There are a number of reasons why people might go without insurance. Flood protection is expensive, especially in at-risk areas—indeed, that’s how a flood insurance system should work.
"This is going to be a massive, massive cleanup process," Abbott said in an interview today with "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts. "People need to understand this is not going to be a short-term project. This is going to be a multiyear project for Texas to be able to dig out of this catastrophe."
About 325,000 people affected by Harvey and its aftermath have already registered for FEMA assistance, and $57 million has been distributed so far.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Thursday said the number of people in shelters is decreasing. Still, about 42,000 people stayed in shelters across the state Thursday night, according to the American Red Cross.
The Palatines will provide replacement housing for storm victims who are in need and not covered by insurance. Please make a generous donation today.   
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