Texas Continues Efforts to Rebuild Communities and Lives

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today encouraged displaced Texans to remain patient as the state continues to make progress restoring its communities and readying its neighborhoods for residents’ safe return home. To date, power has been restored to more than half of the customers who lost electricity during Hurricane Ike. Additionally, the fuel industry is reporting that more than 75 percent of retail stations have resumed operations and nearly 100 percent of terminals are operating.

“I urge Texans to stay where they are as local leaders work around the clock to bring necessary utilities back online,” said Gov. Perry. “We will continue to worth with our federal, local and private sector partners to ensure Texans impacted by Hurricane Ike can begin the process of rebuilding their lives and communities.”

Power has now been restored to more than half the customers left without power since the storm. More than 1.46 million homes and business now have electricity, however nearly 1.41 million remain without power. To date, more than 20,000 personnel from across the nation are working with power companies around the clock to restore electricity. Visit http://www.puc.state.tx.us/files/ike.cfm, to learn more about which communities by zip code have restored power.

The Texas Education Agency is providing Education Service Centers in the Houston and Beaumont areas with $1 million each to share with the school districts they serve.  The funds will be used to help impacted districts with immediate needs such as buying supplies, paying for fuel and paying overtime to staff involved in clean-up activities.

Please visit the featured websites for the following information:

• Hotel/motel tax waivers, suspending the collection of the state and local hotel and motel taxes for Hurricane Ike victims (http://www.window.state.tx.us/disaster/)
• Federal transitional housing assistance for Texas evacuees with inaccessible or uninhabitable homes (www.femaevachotels.com)
• Food stamp assistance - a new, shorter application is available to apply for special disaster assistance instead of the usual 12-page state application (http://www.hhs.state.tx.us/news/release/091908_HurricaneIke_FoodStamps.shtml)

Agency and private sector updates on Hurricane Ike response and relief efforts (http://governor.state.tx.us/hurricane/)