Rockport residents felt hopeful last September when country music legend George Straight visited their community and announced his benefit concert had raised $40 million dollars for Harvey relief.
As we reported yesterday, now residents want to see how that money has been used in the months since the storm.
The Michael and Susand Dell Foundation is distributing the money, and they gave KRIS 6 News a breakdown.
Not all of the money raised at Strait’s benefit concert went to the foundation, but the portion that did is now part of the Dell Foundation’s nearly $100 million Rebuild Texas fund.
So far, the foundation has spent $4.3 million dollars throughout the Coastal Bend on 21 different projects.
Of that, $2.1 million has gone to Rockport. Some of the things that money has funded include community and economic development, small businesses, education and child care, and promoting tourism.
"We’ve invested in Rockport more than any other region so far," Neeraj Aggarwal, Lead of the Rebuild Texas Fund, told KRIS 6 news. "That’s for a variety of reasons. A, because we’ve got high profile donors, like George Strait that have contributed. But B., that’s where Hurricane Harvey made landfall. The other part is that Rockport has been exceptionally well prepared. They’re proactive, they tell us, hey, this is what we need."
The foundation has given Port Aransas $921,000, and spent $1.2 million on other projects in the region.
Coastal Bend communities also have access to an additional $7.8 million dollars allocated to Harvey Relief.
Here is a complete breakdown of how the Rebuld Texas fund has been distributed throughout the Coastal Bend since Hurricane Harvey struck the region.
