Many Harvey victims remain out of homes

Renee Schmidt stands in her flood-damaged home in Silsbee, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. Schmidt is still living in a FEMA trailer more than a year after Harvey's floodwaters overflowed from nearby Village Creek. Photo taken Thursday 10/11/18 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise less Renee Schmidt stands in her flood-damaged home in Silsbee, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. Schmidt is still living in a FEMA trailer more than a year after Harvey's floodwaters overflowed from nearby Village Creek. ... more Photo: Ryan Pelham, The Enterprise Photo: Ryan Pelham, The Enterprise Image 1 of / 70 Caption Close Many Harvey victims remain out of homes 1 / 70 Back to Gallery

Renee Schmidt spent four months in a motel room after Hurricane Harvey swamped her home in this small town north of Beaumont and nearly 11 more months in a FEMA trailer left in her yard. The only thing left to endure, she thought, was having to spend more time in temporary accommodations as she waited for disaster aid to help her rebuild.

Then she learned the Federal Emergency Management Agency may return in just four months to take back the trailer, even though her home is certain to remain uninhabitable far beyond Feb. 25, when the emergency shelter program expires.

BEFORE AND AFTER: Photos of Harvey in SE Texas

"I'm going to be living in my car," said Schmidt, 63, standing in the shade of her ruined home, atoppled shed nearby with its pitched roof digging into the ground where the floods had set it down. "I am a strong woman. I've been through some things in my life. But this has just about whipped me."

Schmidt represents one of nearly 1,800 households in East Texas still living in FEMA trailers more than year after Hurricane Harvey and at risk of losing their temporary shelters in the coming months. Rebuilding has proceeded slowly in a region that has been overshadowed, if not overlooked, almost from the time the powerful storm chugged out of Houston and brought its remorseless rains here. In Schmidt's neighborhood, located between two creeks that overflowed their beds, trailers — some from FEMA, some provided by nonprofits — sit on most properties, where damaged homes are marked by waterlines 19 feet from the ground.

Several factors have contributed to the slow progress here, according to disaster relief officials. Disaster case management, which verifies that people have been affected and connects them with aid, took months to set up, delayed in part by difficulties hiring staff in rural areas. Here in Hardin County, for example, Disaster Recovery Director Michelle Brewer said case management wasn't established until April 9, more than six months after Harvey made landfall.

The shortage of rural case managers, whose caseloads are capped at 35, means longer waiting times. It can take 10 to 14 days for a case manager to contact people seeking help, according to Endeavors, a company contracted by the state to provide case management. In Hardin County, said Brewer, it has sometimes taken months.

Finally, rebuilding in rural areas can be much more difficult and complex. Homeowners not only face renovations or reconstruction of homes; they may also have to replace septic or aerobic treatment systems or repair wells, unlike homeowners in urban areas where water and sewers are municipal services.

Schmidt's well was contaminated by Harvey's floodwaters. To make the water drinkable once more, she needed to replace the pump and tank, and chlorinate the well. After getting a $10,000 estimate from a contractor, Schmidt, who lives on roughly $950 a month in disability, decided to fix the broken pump herself and live with the contaminated water, which she uses to shower and wash clothes, until she can afford the full fix. She has purchased bottled water since the hurricane.

"FEMA doesn't realize how bad it is," Schmidt said. "This storm has just about wrecked me, emotionally and physically — it has wrecked me financially."

Silsbee traces its roots to a logging camp built by lumber magnate John Henry Kirby — the same Kirby who built the Kirby Mansion on Smith Street in Houston. Lumber, the railroad that transports it, and an oil field just north of the city still provide the region's economic base, according to the Texas State Historical Association. Silsbee, city of roughly 6,700 people, has a median household income under $35,000, compared to about $57,000 statewide.

Hurricane Harvey flooded about one in five homes in Hardin County, according to Brewer. Many families who received FEMA individual assistance shortly after the hurricane spent significant portions of the aid on wells and aerobic treatment systems and found themselves without enough money to make building repairs.

"Time is a concern," said Brewer, who has asked county disaster case managers to put families living in trailers at the top of their files. "These people — if they're still in a FEMA trailer, there's a problem somewhere. And we have to work together."

Wayne McDaniel, a member of Hardin County's long-term disaster recovery team, said he is disappointed in the time it is taking to get more help to people who have been unable to return to their homes and face the prospect of losing their temporary housing. The Texas General Land Office has requested FEMA extend the program that provides trailers for an additional nine months, until Nov. 25, 2019, but has yet to receive a decision.

"People have already gone through one disaster," said McDaniel. "Dealing with the government is another disaster for them, and I hate to see them go through that."

For Schmidt, a little extra time would make a world of difference. She has plans to rebuild in the early spring with the help of the iConnect Outreach, a Conroe nonprofit that provides disaster relief, and Hardin County Strong, the nonprofit run by the county's disaster recovery team. An extra month or two is all it would take to prevent Schmidt from becoming homeless in the interim.

But in spite of the prospect of living out of her car, Schmidt said she'd understand if FEMA took back the trailers housing hundreds of Texas families come February. That afternoon, there wasn't a cloud in the East Texas sky, but in Florida, Hurricane Michael was lashing the Panhandle. Amonth before, Hurricane Florence battered parts of North and South Carolina. Thousands more people were starting on the same long path to recovery that Schmidt has yet to complete.

"I get they have to take care of people there," she said. "I don't know what America did to keep Mother Nature so mad."