Nearly 10 months after heavy rains caused severe flooding in Montgomery County, Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief funding is starting to trickle in to local municipalities.
The cities of Conroe and Montgomery are preparing their applications to receive funding reimbursements from the agency for repairs that have been made, or will be made, after the flooding events last April and May.
Conroe is requesting FEMA refunds for the work the city completed following the floods, including repairing water and sewer lines, roadways, park repairs and debris removal.
Some of the most notable projects include about $367,000 to replace culverts and the roadway on Teas Nursery Road, Woodland Hills and Pawnee drives. The city also repaired about $8,600 in damage at McDade, Carl Barton Jr. and Stewart’s Creek parks. The city also repaired about $16,000 in damage at the Oscar Johnson Jr. Community Center, said Scott Taylor, Conroe’s director of infrastructure services.
To mitigate future flood-related issues, Taylor said the city upgraded some of the older infrastructure that was damaged during the flood to meet city standards.
“The construction standards have changed over the years as Conroe has developed,” Taylor said. “At a minimum, we go back [and complete repairs] to the current standard. We don’t have to go back to FEMA after the next major storm because the same road was washed out again.”
The city of Montgomery has taken a different approach to its flood recovery efforts. The floods damaged the Buffalo Springs Road bridge as well as Flagship Boulevard, Old Plantersville and Baja roads, but some of the repairs have to be delayed until after the city receives FEMA funds, City Administrator Jack Yates said.
The city expects to receive funding on March 1 for all projects except the Buffalo Springs bridge repair, and hopes to complete them by the end of the year.
One of the most visible projects is the repair of the Buffalo Springs Road bridge, where a part of the asphalt the size of an office desk collapsed, he said.
“It has nothing to do with the integrity of the bridge,” Yates said. “The subsurface was undermined and if you were to drive over it, more would have collapsed, so we had [the Texas Department of Transportation] look at it, and they recommended the closing of the bridge also.”
While final cost projections have not been finalized, city officials estimate a cost of $1.8 million total to complete all of the repairs, Yates said.
“The city has about $1.2 million of reserves, and that took many years to build up,” Yates said. “If it was not for the FEMA funds, the repairs would wipe out all of our reserves. We would need to borrow funds that easily could have taken us 15 to 20 years to pay back.”
Nearly 10 months after heavy rains caused severe flooding in Montgomery County, Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief funding is starting to trickle in to local municipalities.
The cities of Conroe and Montgomery are preparing their applications to receive funding reimbursements from the agency for repairs that have been made, or will be made, after the flooding events last April and May.
Conroe is requesting FEMA refunds for the work the city completed following the floods, including repairing water and sewer lines, roadways, park repairs and debris removal.
Some of the most notable projects include about $367,000 to replace culverts and the roadway on Teas Nursery Road, Woodland Hills and Pawnee drives. The city also repaired about $8,600 in damage at McDade, Carl Barton Jr. and Stewart’s Creek parks. The city also repaired about $16,000 in damage at the Oscar Johnson Jr. Community Center, said Scott Taylor, Conroe’s director of infrastructure services.
To mitigate future flood-related issues, Taylor said the city upgraded some of the older infrastructure that was damaged during the flood to meet city standards.
“The construction standards have changed over the years as Conroe has developed,” Taylor said. “At a minimum, we go back [and complete repairs] to the current standard. We don’t have to go back to FEMA after the next major storm because the same road was washed out again.”
The city of Montgomery has taken a different approach to its flood recovery efforts. The floods damaged the Buffalo Springs Road bridge as well as Flagship Boulevard, Old Plantersville and Baja roads, but some of the repairs have to be delayed until after the city receives FEMA funds, City Administrator Jack Yates said.
The city expects to receive funding on March 1 for all projects except the Buffalo Springs bridge repair, and hopes to complete them by the end of the year.
One of the most visible projects is the repair of the Buffalo Springs Road bridge, where a part of the asphalt the size of an office desk collapsed, he said.
“It has nothing to do with the integrity of the bridge,” Yates said. “The subsurface was undermined and if you were to drive over it, more would have collapsed, so we had [the Texas Department of Transportation] look at it, and they recommended the closing of the bridge also.”
While final cost projections have not been finalized, city officials estimate a cost of $1.8 million total to complete all of the repairs, Yates said.
“The city has about $1.2 million of reserves, and that took many years to build up,” Yates said. “If it was not for the FEMA funds, the repairs would wipe out all of our reserves. We would need to borrow funds that easily could have taken us 15 to 20 years to pay back.”
