HOUSTON – An application for a federal grant totaling $17 million to buy out homeowners whose property repeatedly floods was approved Tuesday by Harris County commissioners.
That money will fund buyouts for about 100 homeowners who applied before Hurricane Harvey spread havoc across Harris County, damaging more than 75,000 structures by one estimate.
The Harris County Flood Control District says about 1,000 new applications have been received in the last few days, and thousands more are expected.
The program, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, allows buyouts of properties under specific conditions:
- The property must be in a community in good standing in the National Flood Insurance Program
- The cost of acquiring the property must be less than estimated costs of future flooding
- The property must be covered by federal flood insurance
Mark Palmer's home in the Mayde Creek subdivision near the Addicks Reservoir in northwest Houston qualifies.
When 38 inches of water flooded his home the weekend Hurricane Harvey battered Houston, Palmer evacuated his family by boat and then went to work for the next 96 hours rescuing neighbors as chief of the Westlake Fire Department.
"I came in on a kayak and I floated right into my living room,” Palmer said.
It’s the third time he’s flooded in seven years. Now he’s ready to move.
"We love the neighborhood and we have great neighbors, but who’s going to buy a house that’s been flooded three times?” he said.
He applied for a buyout two days ago, but is concerned about the time it normally takes to process an application: Normally, up to two years.
He doesn’t want to invest money to fix up his house, only to then give it up if he’s granted a buyout.
“I wish they would buy me out now so I could take my FEMA money and I could buy a house. I could afford one,” Palmer said.
Because the damage countywide is so extensive, Flood Control and FEMA officials are trying to obtain funding from federal, state, and local sources to “frontload” the process, and shorten the wait time.
“If we can get the funding now to start doing buyouts ... we can save them the effort of having to go through hiring contractors, potentially repairing their houses, and offering to buy them out six to nine months down the road if they meet the criteria,” County Flood Control Director Russ Poppe said.
The survey of the damage is far from complete, so there are no official estimates yet of the how many property owners may qualify, but Harris County Judge Ed Emmett estimates the funds needed for property buyouts after Harvey could run from $800 million to $2.5 billion.
Click here for more information from the Harris County Flood Control District about the voluntary buyout program.
