Fort Bend aims for financial aid
Residents still waiting for reimbursement from FEMA for repairs
As residents recover from Hurricane Harvey, the county is preparing for the upcoming hurricane season and seeking grants to aid in repairs and improvements.
Patricia Sullivan thought she was in the clear after Hurricane Harvey struck her Missouri City neighborhood and left her home seemingly untouched.
The 74-year-old, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and uses an oxygen tank, was worried about the power going out in her home as days of rain deluged the streets.
“Mainly I was thinking that I’m on oxygen,” she said, sitting inside her dining room. “If the lights went out, where was I going to go?”
Sullivan got an offer from a friend to go to a hotel in Pearland, but she said she couldn’t afford it. So, she rode out the storm. The lights went out only briefly, and Sullivan’s home remained unaffected, just as it had during every hurricane or tropical storm in the almost 28 years she’s owned her home.
But nearly a month after Harvey, Sullivan noticed water in her dining room and garage. She called John Moore plumbing company, and the serviceman explained the moisture had probably been building up slowly since the hurricane.
He also noticed something else. “Oh, God, you got mold,” he said.
Sullivan’s home was one of about 6,800 homes damaged during Hurricane Harvey, according to Fort Bend Office of Emergency Management data presented at a Commissioners Court meeting last month. Residents submitted a little over 58,000 applications to FEMA, resulting in more than $93 million in assistance. The county
conducted more than 10,000 rescues as 200,000 people were ordered to evacuate.
As hurricane season approaches, county elected officials and emergency personnel prepare for future storms as they continue recovery efforts from 2016 and 2017 floods.
County Judge Bob Hebert also recently asked Gov. Greg Abbott for nearly $1.5 billion to aid in recovery efforts but notes that could take six more months.
“That money would not help us for this hurricane season,” Hebert said earlier this week. “We’re just going to have to keep our fingers crossed and deal with it.”
No downtime for county
As residents recover, the county began gearing up in January for the new hurricane season. Its checklist includes about 50 tasks, such as double-checking generators, emergency plans and employee badges.
“I don’t know (if) there’s a slow time of the year anymore when you have flooding in April, May and June, and we can have a chemical spill or something anytime,” said Jeff Braun, of the Fort Bend Office of Emergency Management.
Caroline Egan, a disaster recovery manager with the Fort Bend Office of Emergency Management who oversees Fort Bend Recovers, a long-term recovery committee that formed after the Memorial Day floods in 2016, said about 1,000 households have active recovery cases with the organization.
The county is continuing to make repairs to roads and bridges damaged by the storm and is working to reduce flooding risks along bodies of water through improved drainage, channels and banks.
Two federal grants — the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Community Development Block Grant — are also in the works after flooding in 2016.
FEMA has approved roughly $10 million for property buyouts, but the grant for home elevations is still under review. Commissioners Court approved around $9 million for the Community Development Block Grant, which assists with housing projects from 2016 disasters. The applications for housing projects have been submitted to the Texas General Land Office for approval.
Despite having grants in the works from 2016 storms, the funding for Harvey is still being processed. Texas received $5 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funding, some of which is expected to assist Fort Bend County. The county is also applying for infrastructure improvements and drainage projects from another $500 million available for Hazard Mitigation funding.
‘I’m just struggling’
Sullivan woke up one day in October and couldn’t breathe. Her brother took her to Urgent Care.
When Sullivan’s doctor learned there was mold in her home, he admitted her to the hospital and told her to not return home until it was remediated.
She pulled nearly $6,000 from her retirement account to remove the mold and replace her air-conditioning system. She’s now waiting for FEMA to reimburse her after her first application in November.
“I’m behind on my taxes. I’m behind on my homeowner’s because I can’t go back into my retirement account,” she said. “I’m just struggling.”
While Sullivan remained in the hospital and then a rehab facility, her granddaughter and brother helped her apply for aid from FEMA. Paperwork was faxed to the agency four times, and each time they claimed they didn’t receive it. She ultimately mailed her paperwork in February, and now, FEMA has 90 days to respond.
“I’m just between a rock and a hard place,” she said.
Sullivan did not return to her Missouri City home until shortly before Thanksgiving. She is holding off on repairing her water-damaged dining room floor as she awaits help from FEMA. She’s not sure how she could weather another storm.
“I just stay in prayer, really,” she said.