Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993                   TAG: 9305020158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
DATELINE: HOUSTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COST OF CULT SIEGE - IN DOLLARS - AT LEAST $6.6 MILLION

Hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel were involved in the tragic, round-the-clock standoff between David Koresh and his followers that began early Sunday, Feb. 28, when federal agents tried to execute a search warrant at the compound outside Waco, Texas.

The stand-off ended in a blazing inferno on April 19, when cult members allegedly set fire to the compound.

The cost in human lives of the standoff was incalculable.

Four agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and an unknown number of cult members died in the initial gunbattle when the ATF raid on the compound went wrong. At least 72 cultists, including 25 children, died when the compound erupted in flames 51 days later.

The cost in dollars is easier to measure, but won't be known in total until all the agencies involved have done their accounting and the forensic investigation of the rubble, being directed by the Texas Rangers, is completed.

The FBI, the lead agency in the long days following the fatal initial contact, spent $6,791,600 on the operation.

Of that, the agency said, $2,170,200 was for "extraordinary costs" peculiar to the event - supplies, transportation, per diem allowances, overtime, helicopters and other items.

The remainder was for salaries and other costs the agency would have borne under normal circumstances.

The ATF, which maintained a massive presence at the compound during the siege, estimates it spent $500,000 per week, for a total around $3.5 million, said ATF spokesman John C. "Jack" Killorin.

That agency still has at least five response teams at the site, Killorin said. Although the financial drain on the agency has lessened, the operation is still costing ATF money.

"We've had some difficulty coming up with a total," Killorin said. "That's largely because the operation is ongoing. There is just no final accounting yet."

The Texas National Guard, which lent helicopters, Bradley fighting vehicles and tanks to the FBI and ATF, still has not figured its costs, said spokesman Ed Komondosky. It will probably bill the federal government.

A spokesman in Gov. Ann Richards' office said the guard has notified the state it will seek $300,000 to $400,000 in reimbursements from the federal government.

Richards has said the state, which provided Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety troopers during the siege and which now heads the investigation, also will bill the federal government for expenses. So far, she said, the state has received about $600,000 in reimbursements from the federal government.

Other law enforcement agencies, such as the McClennan County Sheriff's Department and the Waco Police Department, which helped maintain security and man roadblocks around the compound, would not provide details of the costs they incurred.