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Article snippet: HOUSTON — As people throughout this flooded region sought solace in places of worship on Sunday, some of them makeshift, the governor of Texas predicted that Hurricane Harvey’s economic toll would exceed Hurricane Katrina as the federal government’s costliest natural disaster. “When you look at the number of homes that have been mowed down and destroyed and damaged, this is going to be a huge catastrophe that people need to come to grips with,” the governor, Greg Abbott, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Harvey, Mr. Abbott said, had proven “far larger than Katrina, both geographically and population-wise.” He said he expected the storm’s ultimate cost to exceed the $120 billion that the federal government spent after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast 12 years ago. In an interview with Fox News, he suggested that Texas could need up to $180 billion in federal aid. Mr. Abbott’s forecast came as the Trump administration said that it wanted to tie a first burst of relief money to a measure that would raise the federal debt ceiling, probably inflaming a growing fight over the White House’s request for an initial aid package with a price tag approaching $8 billion. A majority of that money would go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and would soon be followed by a request for an additional $6.7 billion — initial payments to rebuild after a disaster as widespread as Harvey. While the debate about Washington’s spending unfolded on Sunday talk shows, Texas was ... Link to the full article to read more