Emergency agency pays effort to buyout flooded properties in Houston

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it is working to accelerate buyouts of repeatedly flooded properties in Houston area, according to local media on Thursday.

Houston Chronicle newspaper reported on its website that the buyouts following Hurricane Harvey aimed at helping Houstonians escape perennially soggy neighborhoods and keeping the federal government from paying to rebuild homes time and time again.

FEMA is receiving thousands of Harvey claims and paying out millions of dollars every day. By the end of Wednesday, more than 80,000 Texans had filed claims and FEMA had issued about 76 million U.S. dollars in advance payments.

Harris County where Houston is located, has already bought out more homeowners than any county in the country with spending 225 million dollars in purchases over the last 20 years, according to FEMA.

Harvey blew ashore on Aug. 25 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, displacing more than one million and damaged some 200,000 homes in a path of destruction that stretches for more than 300 miles (480 km). The Houston area has been devastated by severe flooding, after receiving about 1.4 meters of rain.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)