Hidalgo County receives $2.9 million from Texas General Land Office to improve drainage impacted by 2015 Floods

Contact: Brittany Eck
(512) 463-5708
brittany.eck@glo.texas.gov
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PRESS RELEASE — Feb 14, 2018

Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced the award of $2.9 million in Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds that will help minimize future flooding events in Hidalgo County. This important award, the first allocation of disaster recovery funds for the 2015 flooding events, will be used to construct new storm collection facilities and improve drainage in Hidalgo County's hardest-hit areas.

"Communities in Texas faced tremendous losses from flood disasters in 2015 and 2016," said Commissioner Bush. "The counties impacted represent 76 percent of the Texas population, or 20.9 million people-a total population greater than that of 48 states. In Hidalgo County, these funds will be used for vital flooding mitigation projects to help reduce future damage in future disaster events. The GLO continues to work diligently with impacted communities to prioritize projects and maximize the use of these funds to the benefit of those impacted by past disasters." 

AUSTIN — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the state of Texas a total of $74.5 million in disaster recovery funds to administer for 2015. Due to the severity of the 2015 flooding events, Hidalgo County was a HUD-designated "most impacted" county, along with Harris, Hays, and Travis counties. As part of Hidalgo County's long-term planning and recovery, the community identified areas most affected by the 2015 floods. The CDBG-DR funds administered by the GLO will help Hidalgo County finance the completion of two key infrastructure systems that will help minimize future flooding, includingthe reconstruction of damaged streets and right-of-ways.

About GLO Community Development and Revitalization (CDR): In addition to short-term housing in partnership with FEMA, the CDR division of the Texas General Land Office administers the Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) on behalf of the state of Texas. More than $9 billion have been allocated for recovery following Hurricanes Rita, Dolly, and Ike, the 2011 wildfires, the 2015 and 2016 floods, and Hurricane Harvey. These grants can be used for a wide variety of activities including housing redevelopment, infrastructure repair and long-term planning. For more information, please visit TexasRebuilds.org.

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