Bauer Business Focus: Bob Mitchell

Published on September 11, 2013

Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell, stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to discuss how business owners were shaped by the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on how business owners were shaped after Hurricane Ike with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

It’s been a quiet hurricane season for the Texas coast, but bay area businesses are still on alert for the next big storm and adapting to new federal policies.

Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell, stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to discuss how business owners were shaped by the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

“The Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership is an economic development organization that works to recruit companies, retain companies and help companies expand,” Mitchell said. “We represent about 800,000 people in our region and visually, you can probably say form the south Beltway toward Galveston Island.”

Hurricane Ike brought in over 14 feet of water to many businesses in the partnership’s region, and the $35 billion price tag of the storm lead to the change of several federal policies for the bay area.

“FEMA has just changed the maps and most companies and most homeowners that were in the 500 year floodplain are now in the 100 year floodplain, and then you add on top of that the Biggert-Waters Act, which requires the cost of flood insurance to go up and in some cases,” Mitchell said. “So what our businesses and homeowners need to understand is they need to take a very close look at what’s going on with FEMA and what’s going on with the Biggert-Waters Act.”