Less than 15 months after the Memorial Day 2016 floods that inundated Richmond and the surrounding low-lying areas of the Brazos River, residents are back to square one when it comes to recovery after Hurricane Harvey brought unprecedented devastation to their communities.
The County Appraisal District is working to assess damage on about 7,000 homes in Fort Bend County, according to county officials. During the Memorial Day 2016 floods about 1,300 homes along the Brazos River were flooded, and according to county officials, nearly all of those homes have flooded again with Harvey. In Richmond, about 200 homes were damaged from Harvey, according to personnel from Attack Poverty, a local nonprofit.
“Who would have guessed that a year later, we would go another half foot over [and flood the Brazos River again]—it’s unbelievable, its unprecedented,” said Jeff Braun, Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management coordinator. “It didn’t give anybody a lot of time to try to recoup and rebuild … if we didn’t have a storm like this, we may have been successful.”
Harvey was a unique event in that it brought torrential rain for an extended period of time that contributed to the overflow of the Brazos River and federal flood control reservoirs like the Barker Reservoir, according to county officials. Now resources are being redirected to recovery efforts, and officials are warning residents the process could take years.
“A lot of times the public thinks recovery is really just those first couple of days and weeks following a disaster, but recovery for some families [and] for some communities lasts months, even years,” said Caroline Egan, Fort Bend County OEM planning coordinator. “Fundamentally, your life could be completely changed following an event like this.”
Back to square one
While nearly every Texan in the path of Harvey is working to pick up the pieces following the storm, for residents in Fort Bend County—namely those next to the Brazos River—recovery is all too familiar process.
LeeAnne Klentzman has lived in the Edgewood subdivision off Hwy. 90 next to the Brazos River for almost 30 years. Her home was damaged during the Memorial Day 2016 floods; she had just finished making repairs before Harvey came in late August and damaged her home enough so that it is unlivable.
“I never dreamed it would happen again,” Klentzman said in mid September. “My children are at the house right now; they are cleaning their Barbies out of the attic. They are devastated. This is the home that they were raised in … [and] we are starting over again.”
For hundreds of residents like Klentzman, recovery will prove to be a long process that comes with life-altering decisions like whether to relocate or to stay and rebuild. If the homes that were flooded twice now like Klentzman’s are bought out through a Federal Emergency Management Agency program, 50-year-old historic neighborhoods like Edgewood could essentially disappear, according to city officials.
“What we’ve lost here–if everybody moves–is the neighborhood,” Klentzman said. “It’s the people, not the houses. And so that’s what makes us a community down here.”
Other situations some residents who were flooded face include those who live in areas that were not flooded in 2016 and do not live in a flood zone.
“When we moved down here, they told us this was not a flood zone, so we didn’t buy any flood insurance,” Grand Mission resident Victoria Dominics said. “It has never flooded before, so we are kind of surprised it did.”
Dominics was able to apply for FEMA assistance and has been living in a hotel since Harvey hit. She said she understands the reach of Harvey’s devastation and agrees the county and city are doing all they can to help residents like her but still has the same sentiments as Klentzman.
“We want to come back home–there is nothing like home,” Dominics said.
Long road to recovery
Braun said damage assessment, debris removal and disaster recovery are the biggest components of recovery for the county.
One large component of recovery includes working with FEMA on projects like setting up disaster recovery centers for residents to access information and work with case managers. Officials have said those who apply for FEMA will face longer wait times and need to exercise patience because of the immense number of homes that were flooded.
“When we had the storm last year …there were about 1,200 to 1,300 people that registered for FEMA assistance,” Braun said. “This time we are talking about 47,000 people that have registered; we are talking about almost 50 times the amount of people that have been suffering.”
For those residents who experienced flood damage during both events, applying for FEMA will not get them far because homeowners are limited to a single benefit allowance.
“Once you get benefits, you are not eligible for benefits again,” Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert said. “You can’t allow people to go move back into areas that will flood. Taxpayers should not pay people multiple times because they don’t want to move.”
For other residents who have never applied for FEMA benefits before and are waiting for approval, they might be denied because they cannot get access to their homes to retrieve documents.
“[Some people] were denied until another piece of documentation like proof that you own your house [could be provided],” Braun said. “The problem is a lot of people have that proof in their house, and they can’t get into their house.”
Braun said he and other agencies like U.S. Rep. Pete Olson’s office and the county judge have been diligently working to help residents that fall into these situations. He said another challenge that comes with recovery is keeping residents informed of the resources they can access as well as negating rumors regarding buyout programs.
“[People ask], 'Why doesn’t Fort Bend County have [a buyout program]?'" Braun said. "But the issue is we haven’t had the flooding over the years such as they have [in other counties that do have programs.]”
No magic button
While Fort Bend County does not have its own buyout program, the county did apply for $17 million in assistance through the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant after the Memorial Day 2016 floods. Officials have said had this grant been approved in time, the areas that were hit twice might not have seen the same level of devastation.
“If we’d had that funding to buy out these homes or elevate these homes, we would have had a lot less residents that are impacted,” Egan said.
Even if a buyout program were to be granted to the county, they consist of many moving parts and are not a magic button, according to Hebert.
“We had people fully qualified for the buyout program in 2016, and they haven’t approved anything yet,” Hebert said. “Now, we have people that technically aren’t in the floodway … are they entitled to a buyout program? I don’t know; we’ve got legal minds looking at that.”
Hebert and Braun said despite these factors, both of their respective offices are working to reassess how they handle emergency situations.
“We are going to look at everything we did in this emergency," Hebert said. "If you don’t learn from events like this then you are not going to able to do what you need to do [in the future.]”
Back to square one
While nearly every Texan in the path of Harvey is working to pick up the pieces following the storm, for residents in Fort Bend County—namely those next to the Brazos River—recovery is all too familiar process.
LeeAnne Klentzman has lived in the Edgewood subdivision off Hwy. 90 next to the Brazos River for almost 30 years. Her home was damaged during the Memorial Day 2016 floods; she had just finished making repairs before Harvey came in late August and damaged her home enough so that it is unlivable.
“I never dreamed it would happen again,” Klentzman said in mid September. “My children are at the house right now; they are cleaning their Barbies out of the attic. They are devastated. This is the home that they were raised in … [and] we are starting over again.”
For hundreds of residents like Klentzman, recovery will prove to be a long process that comes with life-altering decisions like whether to relocate or to stay and rebuild. If the homes that were flooded twice now like Klentzman’s are bought out through a Federal Emergency Management Agency program, 50-year-old historic neighborhoods like Edgewood could essentially disappear, according to city officials.
“What we’ve lost here–if everybody moves–is the neighborhood,” Klentzman said. “It’s the people, not the houses. And so that’s what makes us a community down here.”
Other situations some residents who were flooded face include those who live in areas that were not flooded in 2016 and do not live in a flood zone.
“When we moved down here, they told us this was not a flood zone, so we didn’t buy any flood insurance,” Grand Mission resident Victoria Dominics said. “It has never flooded before, so we are kind of surprised it did.”
Dominics was able to apply for FEMA assistance and has been living in a hotel since Harvey hit. She said she understands the reach of Harvey’s devastation and agrees the county and city are doing all they can to help residents like her but still has the same sentiments as Klentzman.
“We want to come back home–there is nothing like home,” Dominics said.
Long road to recovery
Braun said damage assessment, debris removal and disaster recovery are the biggest components of recovery for the county.
One large component of recovery includes working with FEMA on projects like setting up disaster recovery centers for residents to access information and work with case managers. Officials have said those who apply for FEMA will face longer wait times and need to exercise patience because of the immense number of homes that were flooded.
“When we had the storm last year …there were about 1,200 to 1,300 people that registered for FEMA assistance,” Braun said. “This time we are talking about 47,000 people that have registered; we are talking about almost 50 times the amount of people that have been suffering.”
For those residents who experienced flood damage during both events, applying for FEMA will not get them far because homeowners are limited to a single benefit allowance.
“Once you get benefits, you are not eligible for benefits again,” Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert said. “You can’t allow people to go move back into areas that will flood. Taxpayers should not pay people multiple times because they don’t want to move.”
For other residents who have never applied for FEMA benefits before and are waiting for approval, they might be denied because they cannot get access to their homes to retrieve documents.
“[Some people] were denied until another piece of documentation like proof that you own your house [could be provided],” Braun said. “The problem is a lot of people have that proof in their house, and they can’t get into their house.”
Braun said he and other agencies like U.S. Rep. Pete Olson’s office and the county judge have been diligently working to help residents that fall into these situations. He said another challenge that comes with recovery is keeping residents informed of the resources they can access as well as negating rumors regarding buyout programs.
“[People ask], 'Why doesn’t Fort Bend County have [a buyout program]?'" Braun said. "But the issue is we haven’t had the flooding over the years such as they have [in other counties that do have programs.]”
No magic button
While Fort Bend County does not have its own buyout program, the county did apply for $17 million in assistance through the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant after the Memorial Day 2016 floods. Officials have said had this grant been approved in time, the areas that were hit twice might not have seen the same level of devastation.
“If we’d had that funding to buy out these homes or elevate these homes, we would have had a lot less residents that are impacted,” Egan said.
Even if a buyout program were to be granted to the county, they consist of many moving parts and are not a magic button, according to Hebert.
“We had people fully qualified for the buyout program in 2016, and they haven’t approved anything yet,” Hebert said. “Now, we have people that technically aren’t in the floodway … are they entitled to a buyout program? I don’t know; we’ve got legal minds looking at that.”
Hebert and Braun said despite these factors, both of their respective offices are working to reassess how they handle emergency situations.
“We are going to look at everything we did in this emergency," Hebert said. "If you don’t learn from events like this then you are not going to able to do what you need to do [in the future.]”
