Surfside Beach faces a 90-day deadline from Freeport to settle a $400,000 overdue water bill, a debt compounded by Hurricane Beryl's costly recovery efforts

For the first time in nearly six years a Houston victim of hurricane Harvey is waking up in her own bed in a brand new home. It wasn’t just the floodwaters that kept Julia Benjamin from getting back home. A $39,000 City of Houston water bill almost kept her from getting the new home she qualified for from the Texas General Land office.

After 18 months, KPRC 2 Investigates looks into how Houston city leaders have responded to high water bill problems.

Where the city of Houston failed 92-year-old Navy veteran Jessie Lara, the people of Houston have stepped up to help.

A Conroe business owner saw a need and he made the drive to Houston to fulfill it. Ted Ludwig of Grass Knuckles Lawn Care unloaded his equipment and spent the day mowing and cleaning up 91-year-old Jessie Lara’s north Houston yard.

It doesn’t matter who you are, getting a huge water bill is stressful. But one Houston man’s huge water bill debt revealed a dire dilemma. That’s when our ‘DRAINED’ Investigation turned into a community’s call to action, with dozens of people and businesses stepping up to help.