AUSTIN — Texas General Land Office Commissioner George P. Bush is pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the state of Texas $45.2 million to assist in long-term recovery efforts following severe flooding events that occurred earlier this year. HUD will prioritize the most impacted of the 112 affected Texas counties included in the Presidential Declarations for 2016. The residents living in the combined affected counties encompass 76% of the Texas population (more than 20 million Texans).

"The damage from the 2016 floods in Texas had a compounding affect from those that occurred in 2015," said Commissioner Bush. "More than three quarters of our state's population lives in one of the counties affected by these floods and we will need to use all available resources judiciously, prioritizing projects that will most effectively restore quality of life to those living in impacted areas. Many residents were unable to rebuild from the 2015 floods before the rains began again. We must work efficiently and diligently to turn these funds into effective results."

The Continuing Resolution was signed into law on September 29, 2016, and applies to disasters that occurred prior to this date. Other states to receive funding are Louisiana, with $437.8 million, and West Virginia, with $17 million. When considering the impact suffered by Texas in both 2015 and 2016 and the allocation of less than $200 million, the state estimates a shortfall of $2 billion in unmet long-term recovery needs. To determine state awards, HUD considered overall impacts to housing. In total, more than 102,000 households experienced some level of damage.

The Community Development and Revitalization (CDR) program of the Texas General Land Office administers the Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) on behalf of the state of Texas. These grants can be used for a wide variety of activities including housing redevelopment, business assistance, and infrastructure repair. HUD will publish a notice in the Federal Register which will define the criteria for the use of these funds, and CDR will keep impacted communities informed on developments.

Additional information on long-term disaster recovery is available at TexasRebuilds.org.