HOUSTON (CN) — With their homes soaked by Tropical Storm Harvey, some Houston residents are uprooting their lives, choosing to move out of flood-prone neighborhoods before the next big storm hits.
Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday that Texas could need up to $180 billion in federal aid for Harvey victims, more than the $120 billion the government spent after Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans and other Southern cities in 2005.
Harvey has left more than 50 people dead, displaced more than 1 million Texans and damaged around 200,000 homes.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says 500,000 Texans already have applied for aid.
Keith Thomas, 64, is not one of them.
Thomas sat in a lawn chair in the front yard of his northwest Houston home on Labor Day, watching neighbors and volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pull out drywall, flooring and doors that were wrecked when waters from a bayou behind his home and the street in front converged early Sunday, Aug. 27 and flooded his house with 20 inches of water.
Thomas, who is retired, said he applied for FEMA aid after Tropical Storm Allison flooded his house in 2001, but was turned down because his income was too high.
Harvey dropped a record-breaking 51 inches of rain on Houston, while Allison dumped more than 35 inches and caused $9 billion in flood damage in the city.
Thomas has already made up his mind to get out of his flood-prone neighborhood.
“I’m moving. Twice is enough,” said Thomas, who seemed remarkably upbeat, punctuating his words with a raspy laugh, watching volunteers pull debris from his home to the front yard in large sleds and dump it on the curb.
“I haven’t found a new house, but I’ve got options,” he said. “I’ve got property out of town, 26 acres out in the country. You know, I could move there. But now that I’m older I sort of need the medical facilities so I can’t move too far out.”
He said he was surprised at how many volunteers had turned out to help after Harvey in contrast with the aftermath of Allison, but his thoughts were on the government regulations, or lack thereof, that have affected his life.
“I wish they’d spend the money to fix the flooding. Make laws so that the builders have to build higher. My pet peeve is, when they build a house all these foundations are right on the ground. Look over there at some of those houses. They’ve got a slope on their land. Why didn’t they put a slope here?” he asked, looking south across a park in front of his house to the homes on its far side.
Ryan Hultquist, 47, took a break from helping dismantle Thomas’ home and stood by Thomas’ chair under the shade of a pecan tree, a leather tool belt on his waist.
Though President Donald Trump visited Sunday with 2,500 flood victims who were forced to take shelter at the NRG Center in Houston, and has asked Congress for $14 billion in aid for Hurricane Harvey relief, Hultquist said Trump was too slow to respond to the crisis.