Federal Emergency Management Agency officials fanned out across the Rio Grande Valley this week to begin the process of deciding whether Dolly’s damage is bad enough to merit direct assistance to help residents pay for temporary housing, home repairs and to replace some of their belongings.
While the White House made the federal disaster declaration that opened up the federal government’s extensive resources for state and local governments last week, help for people like Noe Gonzalez, whose trailer is filled with floodwaters up to the beds, is still up in the air.
On Monday, Gonzalez, 64, sat in his white pickup truck at the edge of chest-deep floodwaters keeping an eye on his deserted Edinburg neighborhood. His wife was staying with family, but Gonzalez and other men of the Cantu colonia have been spending the nights guarding a perimeter from the “rateros,” or thieves, he said were waiting to loot their homes.
“They’ve already said it’s a disaster, but it has to go up (the chain of command)” Gonzalez said in Spanish. “I hope that they help us, but if not it’s in the hands of our Lord.”
Gonzalez is fortunate to have family in the area, but other families have turned to shelters or hotels while they wait for floodwaters to recede.
Dolly slammed the South Texas coast as a Category 2 hurricane packing 100 mph winds Wednesday, dumping more than a foot of rain in places. In many areas, like Gonzalez’s neighborhood, floodwaters started rising Thursday, driving people from their homes.
Local officials think they will eventually receive the individual assistance to go along with the help for public agencies and hazard mitigation.
“It’s going to come, we’re just not there yet,” said Tony Pena, Hidalgo County’s emergency management coordinator.
FEMA damage assessors started in coastal Cameron County, where South Padre Island bore the brunt of Dolly’s winds.
Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said he believed the county deserved federal help for individuals.
“I don’t know what the holdup may be,” Cascos said.
“There will be literally thousands of homes damaged,” Cascos said. “I think we’re going to get the declaration we need but it may take another day or so.”
For stronger hurricanes such as Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma, which all reached Category 5 strength in 2005, the offers of federal help for individuals all came the same day the storms made landfall in the U.S.
But for lesser storms, such as last year’s Tropical Storm Erin, the disaster declaration that brought federal dollars to individuals came two months after the storm had passed.
FEMA spokeswoman Cheria Brown said the devastation was obvious for disasters that received immediate individual assistance.
“Some do receive it right away as part of the (disaster) declaration,” Brown said. “It just depends on the severity of the disaster.”
Gov. Rick Perry requested federal assistance for individuals in his original disaster declaration, but it was denied, said spokeswoman Krista Piferrer.
Once FEMA and its state counterparts finish the preliminary damage assessment, Perry will likely repeat the request, Piferrer said.
Some of the factors FEMA considers include the number of homes destroyed or with major damage, the number of people displaced and the level of insurance for property owners in the disaster area.
“You have to have some data to support what you’re asking for,” Piferrer said. “We can’t say for definite yet.”
FEMA’s individual assistance program, while critical to helping families recover from a disaster, has also been plagued by fraud. The federal government is still prosecuting fraud cases three years after Rita and Katrina.
Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston charged four more people with fraud stemming from false claims made after Rita and Katrina, bringing its total to 83 people.
