HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston has seen its fair share of disasters over the years, but before Tropical Storm Allison dumped feet of rain on this area, the city had no backup savings and no rainy-day fund.<\/p>\n
That changed shortly after that storm, but is the money the city of Houston is saving even close to being enough for the next big disaster?<\/p>\n
The city’s rainy-day fund has $14 million. But by the end of the fiscal year, it will reach a record $26 million. And while that is only a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to recover from a storm like Hurricane Harvey, it wasn’t that long ago that the rainy day fund was empty.<\/p>\n
In the days after Tropical Storm Allison dropped an astonishing 40 inches of rain on Houston in June 2001, causing $5 billion in damage, Eyewitness News reported the city had no money set aside specifically for disaster response.<\/p>\n
In its aftermath, the Houston City Council got serious about savings, and the fund grew to $20 million.<\/p>\n
“In a city like Houston with numerous disasters,” Houston City Council Member Sally Alcorn said, “It’s very important. We must have money ready to go.”<\/p>\n
The city needed the money just two years ago when the derecho and Hurricane Beryl left behind hundreds of millions in damage. The rainy day fund-officially called the budget stabilization fund – provided $23 million to kick-start recovery until state and federal funding could help and insurance paid out.<\/p>\n
Melissa Dubowski, the city’s finance director, said this year, the city is refilling the coffers after Beryl and the derecho, and this summer upped the fund to a record $26 million.<\/p>\n
“It could be a natural disaster, an economic disaster,” Dubowski told ABC13. “It really is a piece of the puzzle. It’s definitely a priority, and I think that’s where it’s been important enough that we believe it needs to be included in our financial policies, which are set by ordinance.”<\/p>\n
In 2001, ABC13 spoke to then council member Carroll Robinson about the lack of cash after Allison.<\/p>\n
“I wish we’d done it in the past and a lot earlier,” Robinson said then. “The issue now is getting through this crisis and making sure we’re prepared for anything like this in the future or worse.”<\/p>\n
ABC13 spoke with him again on Monday. He’s now a political science professor at TSU and said the savings should be greater.<\/p>\n
“The whole idea, because I was on council at the time, was to get it started, get to $20 million, and then eventually add on to it, and I would have hoped by now that we would have been somewhere north of a hundred million dollars,” Robinson said.<\/p>\n
Indeed, $20 million today is not what it was in 2001. Something is, however, better than nothing, as was the case in the wake of Allison.<\/p>\n
“I’m glad that’s not where we are today,” Dubowski said.<\/p>\n
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