Difficult but necessary
Buyout program
Regarding “Take our houses, not our dignity,” (A21, Aug. 30): Conducting mandatory buyouts during a pandemic is a difficult but necessary decision. Because the buyout targets repetitively flooded areas deep within the floodplain, the people inhabiting these homes have faced hardship numerous times. They possess a resilient spirit that far outweighs the resiliency of their homes. They deserve straight answers, and they deserve them face to face.
However, this mandatory buyout program is about making the community more resilient to a hazard that claims not only property, but potentially the lives of those affected and the first responders charged with saving them. Conducting in-person town hall meetings during the COVID-19 crisis would endanger the very lives we seek to protect.
We have balanced this contrast by having multiple virtual outreach initiatives and are planning for more. The outreach is aimed at informing the beneficiaries, but more importantly, getting them to their eligibility and relocation specialist for the one-on-one care they deserve, and showing them how this program will make them safer while creating no more housing debt than they have currently.
Why not wait until the pandemic is over? We do not know when that will be. When done smartly, we can assist and relocate people one-on-one within the CDC guidelines. Hurricane Laura showed us that we are on the clock, and it will be difficult to rescue, shelter and recover while staying safe from COVID-19 simultaneously.
Our plan is to earn the trust of the beneficiaries the safest way possible, and do so before the next disaster. Joshua Stuckey, Interim Director, Harris County Community Services Department
Regarding “Harvey’s ‘forgotten’ survivors must fight for recovery,” (A21, Aug. 30): I voted for and support the current mayor, but the city’s response to Hurricane Harvey disaster has been nothing short of horrendous. It is inexcusable that the homes of so many people affected by Harvey
remain in disrepair due to a lack of action from the city. I blame the mayor, no one else. Finger pointing gets nothing done. If the city won’t take responsibility, allow the General Land Office to step in and get the job done. Billy Chatman, Houston
Storm surge protections
Regarding “Houston must act,” (A18, Aug. 28): This editorial continues a tradition of silence and bias. Nowhere does it say Houston Ship Channel industries need to pay for their own storm surge protection. The state of Texas needs to regulate the placement, construction and what is in storage tanks and the development along our shorelines; and the tremendous and perhaps fatal, for Galveston Bay, fragmentation and environmental impacts that Ike Dike and the SSPEED Center’s plan will have.
We need a storm surge solution that ensures people take responsibility for their actions in this time of rising sea level. We risk financial, political and moral bankruptcy fighting what will not be stopped. This is our folly and must have our immediate attention. Brandt Mannchen, Humble