These photos, from Glaveston resident Veronica Hugger's
photo
gallery blog of "Now Open" signs (currently at 51 photos),
reflect the town's feisty spirit. If you can't read these, you
need glasses.
There's good news and bad news in coastal Texas, as
Galveston struggles to come back from the devastation of
Hurricane Ike. On the positive side, stores and other
businesses continue to open their doors and welcome customers
back. But these small successes run against a background of
trouble -- namely, big layoffs from the University of Texas
Medical Branch, one of the island's anchor employers.
The center's research operations — big revenue
sources — are almost 100% recovered from the storm's
effects. But health care services offered there have been
slashed. "Twenty percent of the school's doctors, nurses,
hospital technicians, and other employees have been permanently
laid off," says a story in the
Austin American-Statesman — 2,450 people. Another
600 people have quit.
Physical facilities are still in disrepair, the paper
reports: "Only 70 of 133 elevators are operational. The first
floor of the main clinical site, John Sealy Hospital, where the
blood bank and kitchen were wiped out, has been stripped to the
aluminum studs. Meals for patients are cooked outside under a
tent."
Galveston officials traveled to Washington, D.C., last week
to ask for federal dollars. They're hoping that FEMA will waive
the requirement for local government to pay a share of repair
costs to infrastructure and government buildings, and they also
hope for millions of dollars in support for public works
spending as part of the federal economic stimulus package. And
hope is what they came home with — but no promises, at
least not on the record. Tom Lazardo, chief of staff for Texas
Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul, said
only that the group had made a "strong case" for 100% federal
reimbursement.
Meanwhile, however, while the federal government searches
for "shovel-ready" construction projects to fund, federal
payment is reportedly being held up for services already
rendered during the emergency response to Ike and its
aftermath. The
Associated Press reports
that vendors are complaining about $134 million in unpaid
bills, dating back to the earliest days of the response to the
September 13, 2008, storm.
The Texas Windstorm Association, on the other hand, has paid
out almost a billion dollars in claims, the AP said. And that
money is helping to keep roofing contractors busy in the
Houston area, reports Houston's
Channel 2.
In the long term, of course, the Texas Windstorm Insurance
Association (TWIA) — the state's insurer of last
resort for homeowners who can't find insurance on the private
market — will itself need to recover. That item is
high on Governor Rick Perry's agenda, reports the
Insurance Journal. The insurance industry is calling for
state action to put TWIA's funding on a more solid basis.