President Donald Trump signed a $19 billion dollar bill last Thursday towards disaster aid that also covers infrastructural restoration and recovery.
- $3.3 billion would go to the Army Corps of Engineers to
- Reverse damages suffered over the last three years owing to environmental hazards,
- Improve protection against floods and
- Enhance infrastructural resiliency.
- The Defense Department will get $2.7 billion for repairing broken down military installations. $1 billion have been allocated towards mending losses incurred during Hurricane Michael in 2018, for instance at the Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City Beach, Florida.
- The Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Fund will receive $1.6 billion for mending roads and bridges.
- The bill will also boost Puerto Rico’s efforts to fully recover from 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria.
- The U.S. territory will receive $900 million relief funds.
- The U.S. Forest Service will receive supplementary disaster aid resources for suppressing wildfires.
The U.S. military was severely hit during the preceding hurricane seasons. Air bases such as those at Tyndall suffered losses in the range of $3 billion. Efforts are underway to fortify the airbase to endure wind speeds of up to 180 mph, far greater than what Hurricane Michael achieved the previous year.
The disaster aid funds will also address the losses in excess of $3 billion suffered by the marine corps base, Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, during Hurricane Florence in September last year. Demolition and new construction would take up more than half of the disaster aid funds, while repairs would require around $1 billion.
The disaster aid bill would provide much needed relief, especially to states such as California that have suffered a string of calamities during the preceding years.
The disaster aid bill’s primary focus is enhancing resiliency and prevention measures. The initiative is part of a string of measures that the government has taken to curb severe damage during disasters, for instance, to the Texas Gulf shoreline during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 which also affected parts of Houston.
More than $2 billion have already been allocated as part of a $6 billion Water Infrastructure Act that was passed in October, 2018, towards a protecting barrier that would fortify the southern state’s shoreline. Other objectives include highway and railroad floodgates, seawall upgrades and improved drainage systems that would collectively cost in excess of $30 billion.