The damage cost estimate facing city of Dallas taxpayers is $60 million, according to briefings for the city council Wednesday.
Council members gave city staff members a standing ovation for the long hours and good work they did responding to the Oct. 20 tornado.
“It has been an extraordinary effort," Mayor Eric Johnson said.
Now the staff is working to find ways to pay for the recovery.
Fire Station 41 on Royal Lane near the Dallas North Tollway is a total loss. Five other city buildings were severely damaged.
The city has insurance on the buildings with a $750,000 deductible.
Emergency Management Director Rocky Vaz said other expenses are not insured, the largest of which is $30 million for damaged traffic signals, street lights and signs.
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Contractors hired to help remove debris from city streets will cost millions more, which is not insured.
"Then we have emergency protective services we have been doing since the storm, all the labor cost, the equipment cost, the overtime for police and fire, and all of sanitation, public works," Vaz said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may reimburse some of the cost, if the total of uninsured expense exceeds $38.5 million.
"They have come out and done damage assessments. They've taken pictures. Now they are looking at what insurance we have, deducting that and then looking if we come to that trigger point of $38.5 million or exceed that," Vaz said.
The city's own assessment found 905 private or city structures with damage. But the number with severe damage fell short of the 800 required for individual private property assistance from the federal government for homeowners.
A small break may still be coming to homeowners whose homes were damaged by the tornado.
Just like Dallas County Commissioners did Tuesday, the Dallas City Council Wednesday authorized reappraisal of damaged properties. It could give homeowners with storm damage a break on their current year property taxes.
"That would be good," homeowner Martha Vega said.
She said she is negotiating insurance coverage for her damaged home just like the city is doing for its properties.
Vega said an insurance adjuster told her the family should be living in the house, even though the sheetrock has fallen from the ceiling in many places and buckets still collect rain water from the leaking roof.
"The contractor says it's not livable and he can't have us in here while he's taking down the sheetrock and everything," she said. "If I'm having to fight with my house just with my insurance, I can imagine the city of Dallas having to, everywhere."
State law allows the city to increase property tax rates next year above the new 3.5% cap without voter approval if a state disaster has been declared, which has happened in Dallas.
City officials said Wednesday they hoped to find ways to pay for the damage without a tax rate hike on everyone next year.
