The city of San Marcos’ flood recovery efforts got a boost Feb. 29 when the office of U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, announced a $25 million allocation of disaster relief funds to the city from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“These significant funds support the great local efforts that have been underway in San Marcos since the flood waters first began rising,” Doggett said in a news release.
San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero said Doggett’s office has indicated the process of allocating this funding has been much faster than the normal process. The city of San Marcos sent a delegation of council members and city staff to Washington D.C. in December to meet with legislators regarding flood recovery funds.
"This certainly puts us leaps and bounds ahead of just the visionary perspective and puts us in a position to be able to take some definitive action once we can come to a conclusion as to which project will give us the biggest bang for our buck."
— San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero
“We’re certainly pleased and very appreciative of all the federal, state and local leaders who were involved in helping us make our case, not only for San Marcos but for the state of Texas in regards to receiving these funds,” Guerrero said.
Guerrero said the city will continuing working with partners throughout the region to determine the best use of the funds. The city has been considering “numerous projects” he said.
“The big missing variable was, ‘How do we pay for it?’” he said. “This certainly puts us leaps and bounds ahead of just the visionary perspective and puts us in a position to be able to take some definitive action once we can come to a conclusion as to which project will give us the biggest bang for our buck.”
Clifford Robertson, a San Marcos resident whose home was flooded during the Memorial Day weekend flood in May and again during the All Saint’s Day flood in October, said he would like to see some of the money used to assist homeowners who are still dealing with flood recovery and have been unable to move back into their residences.
Robertson is renting an apartment before he and his fiancé can move back into their home on which they are also paying a mortgage. He said he hopes they can move back in before Aug. 10, when they will have to determine whether to sign another lease.
Before Robertson can decide what to do with the house—which he and his fiancé are determined to stay in, he said—they must get word from the Federal Emergency Management Administration about new floodplain maps, which are currently in development.
With the assistance of Increased Cost of Compliance Coverage, a FEMA program to help bring properties damaged by natural disasters back into compliance with insurance rules, Robertson and his fiancé received $30,000 to put toward addressing their home’s flooding issue. But that money would be “a drop in the bucket” compared to the cost of elevating the home out of the floodplain, he said.
Based on conversations he has had with city staff, Robertson said he is not counting on personal assistance to homeowners being first on the city’s list of priorities. He said he anticipates large-scale infrastructure improvements will likely take precedence.
“I’m not jumping up and down. … But when I saw [news about the $25 million disaster recovery funding] I said, ‘Let’s see how far this goes,’” Robertson said.
Guerrero said more discussion is necessary before any final decisions can be made. The amount of money means the city could tackle a large-scale project to mitigate future flooding, he said.
“[The funds] have to go toward something that’s not just going to be a short-term solution for a small portion of the community that’s impacted by flooding,” Guerrero said. “We can take this significant resource and put it toward a project or a number of projects that would provide relief to a larger portion of the community.”
