TEXAS – Ahead of the Thursday’s Texas legislature meeting in Kerrville, Texas, flood survivors and disaster recovery organizers hosted a virtual press briefing to discuss community needs for federal and state disaster relief.
Five survivors, Amanda Damien (Sandy Creek), Eric Jones (Sandy Creek), Brian Keeper (Hunt), Melanie Strong (Sandy Creek) and Ashlee Willish (Sandy Creek) outlined urgent community needs, shared personal experiences, and detailed policy actions they hope Texas legislators will take in a special session to ensure a swift and sustained recovery.
Chrishelle Palay, a member of Organizing Resilience Strategy Group, of Houston, said she has experienced what it is like to be a disaster survivor.
“This call is designed specifically to insert survivors’ voices directly into the conversations ahead of tomorrow’s Texas Joint Community on Disaster Preparedness and Flooded Hearing,” Palay said.
Brian Keeper, 68, said recovery has been about securing a place to live, getting a vehicle and what to do about his ravaged home following the deadly floods.
He described when floodwaters started to rise, he made two phone calls and woke up 11 people.
“I feel like if there had been a warning system, more people could have responded earlier, though the sound of the water was pretty loud, but I understand those alarms are even louder,” Keeper said. “It would be nice if we had a community-based phone tree to alert our neighbors in addition to having a loud alarm system.”
He also noted that the FEMA system denied his application initially when he applied.
“FEMA has opened an office here in Hunt where I went to and had a very sympathetic person that helped me navigate FEMA, and I believe I’m on my way to getting help from them,” Keeper said. “I don’t know what the state is planning to do to help survivors. I can tell you that there’s a lot of need, and I hope that they step up and respond.”
Doug Quinn, executive director of the American Policy Holdings Association and CEO of United Survivors Disaster Relief, said disaster survivors usually experience an ample amount of love and support for the first couple of weeks but then later left in the dark for additional resources.
“They get a couple of weeks of the love from the nation and then they’re all on their own,” Quinn said. “So, they have to figure it out for themselves. So now we’ll be engaging specifically to make sure that these people have what they need in what we call the storm after the storm, which is the upcoming insurance denials.”
Maddison Sloan, director of Disaster Recovery & Fair Housing Project at Texas Appleseed, echoed the same sentiment, stating, “the average award for FEMA Home Repair Assistance as of this week, is about $8,000. So that is not gonna rebuild homes. That is not even gonna fully repair homes.”
The group hopes Texas legislators will consider this discussion and concerns from flood survivors in the special session to ensure a swift and sustained recovery.