By the end of evacuations, the federal government will likely spend between $60 million and $65 million transporting Americans stranded in war-torn Lebanon back to their home country.
The expenses, which will not be reimbursed, include $34 million in commercial flights and $9.4 million in chartered ship rides.
The remaining $21 million was spent on “undetermined” Department of Defense assets and U.S. Embassy transit services, State Department spokesman Justin Higgins said.
Higgins said firm sums will not be available until evacuations are complete.
The final flight is expected to arrive Wednesday, but Higgins said those who have not been able to contact the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and want to leave the country will be accommodated.
“There are all kinds of various loose ends that will be tied up,” he said. “We will still move people up, so we won?t know for sure how much we spend.”
At the minimum, the federal government will have spent $4,000 per evacuee. As of Tuesday morning, 14,000 U.S. citizens evacuated Lebanon since July 16, most boarding ships and choppers to Cyprus and Turkey.
From there, the evacuees flew to Europe and then to repatriation centers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and Atlanta airports. About 1,350 evacuees left Tuesday, according to the state department.
Once reaching American soil, most evacuees signed promissory notes of reimbursement for airfare vouchers, hotel stays and cash assistance for additional travel to their homes, Maryland Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jeff Welsh said.
State-incurred expenses will be reimbursed by the federal government, Welsh said. Officials from the federal Department of Health and Human Services have declined to estimate costs on the evacuation until they are complete.
