The city expects to be reimbursed all the money, said City Manager David Cooke. The money was spent in September and October.
The reimbursements will come through the state and other agencies. Fort Worth operated a shelter for 22 days. At its peak, 3,650 evacuees, many from Port Arthur, stayed in local hotels and 247 were at the school district’s Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center in south Fort Worth.
Hurricane Harvey slammed in the state's Gulf Coast in the Houston area Aug. 25 and lasted seven days. It caused widespread devastation as it moved across Texas into Louisiana. Estimates for Hurricane Harvey's damage run as high as $180 billion.
Several hundred employees across various city departments worked a total of 21,107 hours, earning $978,555. Of that, 15,310 hours were considered overtime and equal to $786,438 in pay.
But coupled with benefits costs required to be paid on those dollars, buying supplies and clothing, and leasing equipment, including three large tents to shelter animals, the city paid out $1.3 million, figures show.
The employees who worked locally must submit forms detailing their work and work hours as part of the city’s disaster response pay policy. Those forms, which are approved by an employee’s supervisor, will be audited, the city said. Those forms are not required by the city for those employees who were deployed to Houston, the city said.
Three police officers logged the most individual hours, each above 220 hours, in Fort Worth, and totaling 680 hours.
The Fire Department said it paid out $377,790 sending firefighters to Houston and for those who remained in Fort Worth to back-fill positions, the department said. The department said it has submitted its expenses to the Texas Task Force 1/Texas Engineering Extension Service and the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System programs.
The Police Department said it paid out $817,915, of which $736,321 was in personnel costs. The department said it sent 134 officers of all ranks to Houston.
Sandra Baker: 817-390-7727, @SandraBakerFWST
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