Residents rely on families to rebuild

September 3, 2017

BAYSIDE - Sabine Wiegand, 54, spent Saturday afternoon clearing her belongings from her closet and loading them into a moving van.

It was in that closet - just a week earlier - where she hid with her 76-year-old mother and their cat as Hurricane Harvey ripped the roof off their Bayside home. They lived less than a 30-minute drive from where the storm made landfall with 130 mph winds in Rockport.

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Why did Victoria's water system fail?

September 3, 2017

Officials can’t remember the last time the city of Victoria’s tap ran dry.

But Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane that devastated the Texas coast, caused just that for the largest city in the Crossroads, leaving tens of thousands of people without drinking water for a week.

While most officials are preoccupied with providing relief to those harmed in the immediate aftermath of Harvey, eventually they must reconcile how a changing climate can affect critical infrastructure, experts say.

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Displaced and in disarray

September 8, 2017

Cindy Barrientes donated her last $5 to Hurricane Harvey at a checkout lane Wednesday night.  

This turned out to be good karma because a few hours later she learned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would help her financially.

“I just don’t know how to use it,” Barrientes said. “I’m not sure when or how it will come in.”

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Environmentalists are comparing Hurricane Harvey with the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill from 2010.

They worry that with the governor suspending some environmental rules, the Category 4 hurricane’s effects won’t be fully understood until long after the spotlight is pointed elsewhere.

“With the BP oil spill, we’re still learning things like how dolphins and other marine life fared,” said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas.

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Nonprofit leaves people lost after Harvey

September 17, 2017

When Darlene Moya, 38, returned from Austin with her three children after fleeing Hurricane Harvey, she found herself locked out of her Victoria rental home.

The single mom said she knew this might happen when she decided what most mothers would: Instead of spending $170 on rent, which is due weekly, she used the last couple hundred dollars to her name to evacuate her daughters - who are 2, 3 and 15 years old. The family sought shelter with relatives in Austin, out of Hurricane Harvey’s deadly path.

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'We are human beings like everyone else'

September 18, 2017

Alexa’s hope of living a normal life in the United States with her 11-year-old daughter came crashing down with the tree that landed on her home during Hurricane Harvey.

Just two years ago, the mother and daughter moved from Mexico to Bloomington, a rural community of about 2,500 residents.

Alexa bought a trailer, her daughter started school and the two started settling into their new life in the U.S., she said.

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Medical community feels impact of Harvey

September 23, 2017

Dr. Fred Lykes looks around at what used to be his dermatology practice waiting room for the past 38 years.

The stench of mold permeates the almost completely cleared-out building.

The holes in the roof caused by Hurricane Harvey’s powerful winds brought water into his office and destroyed everything.

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Harvey's speed leaves many in harm's way

September 24, 2017

Refugio grandmother Lamar Rodriguez, 51, didn’t understand why she and her neighbors were not allowed into the storm-resistant dome in Woodsboro.

“Why are the citizens not getting proper help?” she asked.

Rodriguez would have made the about 15-minute drive to the dome to escape Hurricane Harvey’s wrath during landfall, she said. But with limited finances and few family members able to help, she instead weathered the storm in a neighbor’s home, where she spent the night trying to keep her two grandchildren calm. That proved a difficult task, she said, when powerful winds and heavy rains began to disintegrate the home as she and others sheltered inside.

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Housing options slim for displaced families

October 1, 2017

Samantha Torres, 23, has been living in a Cuero hotel room for more than two weeks.

The room’s tiny fridge is big enough to fit her 2-year-old’s milk and juice.

She and her girlfriend lost almost everything when 16 inches of floodwater filled their rental home in the Greens Addition.

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Harvey devastates homeowners without insurance

October 8, 2017

Aubrey De La Garza, 3, whimpered as she plucked a purple toy alligator from what was left of her mother’s bedroom.

The toddler’s life was turned upside down when Hurricane Harvey sent a tree crashing onto her family’s three-bedroom trailer in Bloomington. The family is living in a hotel paid for by the federal government and is still struggling to cope with the reality of losing the home.

“It’s hard because you look at your kids and you don’t have a home for them,” said the little girl’s mother, Erica Andrade, as she tried to hold back tears while her daughter picked through belongings.

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Red Cross response to Harvey criticized

October 8, 2017

An American Red Cross reorganization two years ago led to its lackluster response to Hurricane Harvey in the Crossroads.

The CEO for the region, Debra Murphy-Luera, offered a mea culpa recently to DeWitt County after the county’s emergency management coordinator, Cyndi Smith, lashed out via email.

Emails between Red Cross, Smith and other emergency management coordinators in the area were obtained by ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization that investigated Red Cross’ response to superstorm Sandy in 2012, via an open records request.

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As Hurricane Harvey tore into their homes, Bloomington resident Mary Ramirez, 59, and her family sheltered safely beneath the community’s storm-resistant dome.

“We knew our house probably wouldn’t make it through the storm,” said Ramirez, who had to abandon evacuation plans after her father refused to leave Bloomington.

For Ramirez, who hid from Harvey’s hazards with 11 of her family members, including her 86-year-old father, 7-months-pregnant sister and a handful of children, sheltering at home was not an option.

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Officials have no details on housing relief

October 9, 2017

Neither federal, state nor local officials know exactly how or when Victoria’s Hurricane Harvey victims could see housing relief despite the state recently announcing new recovery programs.

More than a month after Hurricane Harvey ripped apart roofs and soaked hundreds of homes in Victoria, there’s still nowhere for people to seek shelter or temporary housing in the county.

This comes just two weeks after federal and state governmental agencies announced new programs to help people who lost homes, which include paying for more permanent home repairs and offering trailers as temporary housing.

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Assisted-living center leaves resident behind during evacuation

October 11, 2017

A Victoria senior living facility is taking a hard look at its disaster training after leaving a resident behind during Hurricane Harvey.

Vitality Court started planning to move its residents Aug. 24 when the city issued its evacuation order for the rapidly intensifying storm.

This left less than 24 hours for nursing homes and senior living facility staff scrambling to arrange evacuations.

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Widespread outage prompts search for alternative

October 15, 2017

When Victoria went dark after Hurricane Harvey, a lineman died, a handful of homes burned down, thousands of residents lost access to drinking water and the local economy took a hit.

All this raises the question: Should power lines in Victoria be buried to lessen the effect?

Florida and Puerto Rico, where hurricanes landed in the weeks that followed Harvey, are weighing the pros and cons of migrating their electric grids underground, too.

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CUERO - When Lisa Aries, 52, returned to her flooded home and opened her front door, she immediately knew she was in trouble.

“You could smell it,” she said.

After making it through Hurricane Harvey, Aries is one of hundreds of Crossroads homeowners who returned home to find a dangerous surprise - mold.

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Harvey disrupts fall fundraising season

October 20, 2017

For the past 26 years, Affectionate Arms Adult Day Health Care Center has relied on its September fundraiser as a way to keep the nonprofit going.

Asking people to donate immediately after Hurricane Harvey didn’t feel right, said Executive Director Mary Garcia.

“We felt we shouldn’t have it because we considered a lot of people are displaced,” she said.

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John Swanson was among Victoria residents equipped with emergency supplies who decided to brave Hurricane Harvey from home.

Swanson was as ready as he could be. He planned to use an emergency radio to stay informed as the eye of the hurricane inched closer to Victoria County, he told the City Council at a meeting in September.

But there was a problem.

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Victoria's relief efforts lacked coordination, leadership

October 22, 2017

In the days after Hurricane Harvey, Danny Garcia used his Victoria County credit card to buy about $800 worth of mosquito repellant.

The county commissioner said, “I thought, ‘If they put me in jail for this, I don’t care.’”

Garcia had asked officials at the city and county emergency operations center about bug repellant and other dire needs for residents struggling in Precinct 1 but wasn’t getting any answers.

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Housing after Harvey

October 25, 2017

Laurie Avila, 43, said she never expected to be living in a tent in her front yard.

The Guadalupe River swelled in the days after Hurricane Harvey, flooding the mother of two’s aging home in Greens Addition and filling it with mold. To save her family from the health risks of mold exposure, Avila made a new home by pitching a tent in her front yard.

“It could be worse - we could be living like in the streets,” said Avila, who shares the tent with three other family members and two dogs. “But it’s still a pain.”

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Men's shelter, soup kitchen closed because of Harvey

October 27, 2017

A sign posted on the doors of the Salvation Army warns of its closure.

Maj. Laura Martin said the past few weeks have been heart-wrenching as the nonprofit works to recover from Hurricane Harvey.

“Every program I have is closed, and I cannot serve the public,” she said this week. “It hurts my heart. I do not like to turn people away.”

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Habitat volunteers help Harvey victims rebuild

October 30, 2017

The Habitat for Humanity volunteers who gathered by the nonprofit’s parking lot had no shortage of work to do, although the same could not be said about their resources.

“We are just going to work until the money runs out, and then we are going to trust the Lord to provide some more,” said Cynthia Staley, executive director of the Golden Crescent Habitat chapter.

After a brief planning session, two dozen out-of-state volunteers led by Crossroads coordinators set out to fix leaky roofs, replace broken windows and conduct other repairs at damaged Victoria homes. But the several residences they visited last week were a fraction of the more than 100 homes approved for work through the nonprofit’s newly created post-Harvey Habitat ReBuilds program. Many other homeowners need help but don’t qualify.

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The city of Victoria is looking at ways to keep its water system from failing during the next hurricane.

Although city staffers initially said it wasn’t feasible, they now recommend generators be placed at the raw water pump station, the surface water treatment plant and one distribution pump station.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Public Works Director Donald Reese said. “As a matter of fact, we applied for a grant several years ago for a permanent generator to be placed at the distribution pump station, and it was denied by FEMA.”

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County officials: Mobile homes need more oversight

November 6, 2017

Roxann Donaghe, 60, has no idea when - or if - she’ll get money to repair her manufactured home that was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.

The hurricane sent a tree crashing into the home, ripping holes in the ceiling and allowing water to seep onto the walls and her belongings. For the past two months, she’s been living with three of her cats in a motel paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency while hoping the agency will give her cash for repairs.

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Leaders still don't have Harvey recovery details

November 12, 2017

More than 11 weeks after Hurricane Harvey, some officials in communities battered by the storm say they still don’t know who will get help or when from federal and state agencies in charge of rebuilding lives and homes.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hasn’t provided data showing exactly which homes were damaged, according to officials who oversee regions from Victoria to Corpus Christi.

Meanwhile, the Texas General Land Office - the state agency in charge of rolling out some of FEMA’s recovery programs - hasn’t finalized agreements with local government agencies tasked with helping their residents recover.

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Rural Victoria County fights for help after Harvey

November 19, 2017

BLOOMINGTON - People who live in rural parts of Victoria County don’t want to be forgotten.

Danny Garcia is one of them. Now a county commissioner, Garcia grew up in Bloomington, where Hurricane Harvey ripped corrugated metal roofs from janky homes, sent trees crashing onto trailer houses and soaked the ceiling of the local Dairy Queen - one of the only eateries in town.

The hurricane’s winds and rains had no mercy for those already struggling to put food on dinner tables or repair deteriorating homes.

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Lawyer: Insurance companies not friends of Harvey victims

December 3, 2017

PORT LAVACA - After 11 straight days of serving and protecting during Harvey’s aftermath, Chief Deputy John Krause learned his own house was damaged and uninsured - by no fault of his own.

“They said, ‘You don’t have coverage,’ and it felt like somebody had just pulled my intestines out,” said Krause, who works for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office. “I haven’t felt settled since.”

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State law orders local communities to prepare an emergency plan aimed at keeping their residents safe in the event Texas is hit by a hurricane or attacked by terrorists.

That document, which can be hundreds of pages long, contains information like whom to call in the event of a chemical spill, where shelters are and who coordinates search and rescue.

The plan also outlines emergency communication and evacuation routes in the event a monster storm like Hurricane Harvey barrels toward Victoria.

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After Harvey, student homelessness surpasses last year

December 16, 2017

Victoria school district is experiencing a higher level of homelessness among its students.

The number of homeless students rose to 934 this week.

This surpasses last year’s end-of-year total of 809, said Yvonne Rossman-Ramos, VISD’s homeless and foster care liaison.

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Nearly one-third of FEMA applicants deemed ineligible

December 17, 2017

Juanita Rubio, 39, has spent the past four months waiting.

Waiting for help to arrive.

It’s been exactly 114 days since Hurricane Harvey ripped part of the roof from her south Victoria home, which she shared with her 76-year-old mother, 52-year-old brother, husband and four children.

Since then, the family of eight has been fortunate to crash in Rubio’s sister’s living room, just a half-block from their house that’s still barricaded with two-by-fours.

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Hurricane Harvey survivors spend Christmas at Motel 6

December 25, 2017

A small Christmas tree twinkles with multicolored lights inside a room at Motel 6.

Stockings are hung on the wall, and snowflakes are affixed to the windows.

Jaime Almanzar, 54, and his seven family members have been living at the motel on Houston Highway for the past four months since Hurricane Harvey.

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Survey reveals Harvey damaged 3rd of Victoria apartments

March 4, 2018

Kristen Alonzo saved up for more than two years before moving into her apartment last spring.

“We were finally on our own,” the single mother of two said.

But when she returned to her apartment after Hurricane Harvey, she found part of her ceiling had fallen, allowing about 18 inches of water inside.

A couple of boxes of photos and some furniture lay ruined.

Since then, Alonzo has moved her family three times.

An estimated 31.6 percent of apartments in Victoria were damaged by the Aug. 25 Category 4 hurricane. And at least 405 units in those apartment complexes were damaged enough that tenants had to move.

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Every morning, Monica Torres and her 76-year-old mother, Virginia, drive 7 miles from their temporary rental home in Tivoli to nearby Austwell.

Upon arrival, the two are usually greeted by their three hungry cats, the only inhabitants still living in their home that was wrecked by Hurricane Harvey.

Six months ago, the mother and daughter would have never imagined they would still be living elsewhere. Monica Torres remembers how people said it would take a year to get back into the home — but at the time, she thought it wasn’t possible.

Now, it looks as if she was wrong.

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The city and county have a 929-page plan that outlines who does what, when and how in the event of a disaster like Hurricane Harvey.

That plan outlines critical steps governments should take to protect citizens, such as warning residents of oncoming hazards and protecting water supplies.

But during Hurricane Harvey, some parts of the plan weren’t followed, including steps to estimate damage to homes and businesses and organize volunteers.

Now, some community leaders are calling for an updated version.

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Since their arrival in Victoria County immediately after Harvey, volunteers of the Mennonite Disaster Service have worked to rebuild four Bloomington homes and repair almost 60. The effort put in so far marks the beginning of the disaster service’s work, which leaders said will likely continue for years in the community. Click here to read the full story.

Frustrated Gulf Coast homeowners call for end to TWIA

March 26, 2018

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, known as TWIA, is the insurer of last resort for property owners along the Texas Gulf Coast who may otherwise not be able to find insurance. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, some homeowners who paid into the association for years said it failed to cover their costs or forced them into complicated legal battles to fight claims. Click here to read the full story.

Surrounded by grassy fields off a highway in rural South Texas, rows of brand-new mobile homes seem to span as far as the big Texas sky.

All the same color gray with white trim and serial numbers written along the side, almost 2,400 single- and double-wide mobile homes are lined row after row on an old runway at a former naval base in rural Bee County, according to federal data current March 30.

Almost 200 travel trailers also are parked on the property, which is being used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to store temporary housing destined for people across the U.S. who lose homes to disasters.

Although the stockpile sits in Texas Gulf Coast residents’ backyard, it remains unknown exactly how many residents who need housing after Hurricane Harvey could get the units. Click here to read the full story.

EDITORIALS

• Emergency workers have done yeoman’s job
  
• Recovery assistance must reach rural areas
  
• Storm leaves lessons in its wake
  
• Generosity right ingredient for recovery
  
• Harvey’s hidden victims need our help, too
  
• What can we do better next time?
  
• Aftermath brings us closer to our neighbors
  
• Relief effort needs better planning
  
• Our local businesses need us after hurricane
  
• An open letter to all who helped
  
• Harvey leaves behind children seeking solace
  
• Victoria’s planning speeds up tree debris removal
  
• Future of Texas Zoo in question
  
• Serving the Crossroads in faith, hope, love
  
• Florida offers lessons on hurricane shelters, evacuation
  
• Transitional housing is unmet critical need
  
• Time to build affordable housing
  
• Organized relief effort must be prepared for disaster
  
• Victoria housing crisis demands attention, action
  
• City needs to avoid losing water again
  
• Crossroads might lose much-needed Harvey help
  
• Plan to protect public should be open
  
• Survey shows renters also impacted by Harvey
  
• State recovery plan too little too late
  
• Everyday heroes lead Harvey recovery efforts
  
• Releasing emergency plan will help officials, public be better prepared
  
• Unused FEMA trailers symbolize what’s wrong with recovery efforts