While Harvey had a devastating impact on the area’s residential community, what we’ve not yet come to fully address or understand is the impact Harvey had on small businesses.
44 Percent of Area Small Businesses Affected by Harvey
The Small Business Administration issued more than 3,300 unique identifiers for businesses in the aftermath of Harvey. This represents almost 44 percent of all businesses in the Lake Houston area. While some business devastation was obvious in Humble along I-69, or Town Center and Kings Harbor in Kingwood, a multitude of other low-profile businesses also suffered physical damage and economic loss.
Commercial Area near FM1960 and Atascocita Road looking west toward Lake Houston
There is no FEMA equivalent for small businesses; many were left without help after Harvey. As a result, many small business owners depleted life savings, took out home equity loans or drew down retirement accounts to keep their businesses running. For the many that lost homes as well as businesses, circumstances were even more dire.
Many small business owners depleted life savings, took out home equity loans or drew down retirement accounts to keep their businesses running.
The SBA made a significant positive impact to the area’s small businesses. But not all businesses qualified for a loan and a majority of SBA funding went to residents. Typically, 80 percent goes to residential and 20 percent to small businesses.
Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership Helps Address Gaps
To address this imbalance, the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership partnered with SBA, LiftFund, Federal Home Loan Bank, Lake Houston Area Relief Fund, Rebuild Texas Fund and several others. Our goal: to help small businesses via zero interest deferred loans, newly developed grant programs, tax credits and disaster recovery assistance.
We cannot meet current demand for all small business assistance. However, we can build long-term support systems to help the Lake Houston Area recover, and to keep it vibrant and growing.
Two small business funding programs have begun to make a significant impact in our area; both focus on accelerating recovery from Harvey.
Zero Interest Loans from LiftFund
First, LiftFund has been a partner of the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership and Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce since October of 2017. We hosted their first satellite workshop in the chamber offices on November 2, 2017, and have since funded several Lake Houston area businesses with zero interest loans up to $25,000 with a four month deferment period.
The current LiftFund minimum application requirements include a direct physical and or financial impact from Hurricane Harvey, having been in business at least one year prior to Harvey, and the ability to provide other documentation. That documentation includes three months of business and personal bank statements along with the company’s most recently filed tax return. LiftFund’s disaster recovery loan application link is: https://www.liftfund.com/texas-rebuild-initiative/.
Grant Program for Small Businesses
Our second small business funding program launched in March 2018 – the Lake Houston Harvey Small Business Grant Program. It provides grants ranging from $2500 to $5000 for businesses directly impacted by Harvey. It only covers the Lake Houston area – zip codes 770044, 77338, 77339, 77345, 77346 and 77396. Individual companies must have been in business at least a year before Harvey and provide business and personal bank statements along with their most recently filed federal tax return.
Small Businesses Employ 80 Percent of All Employees
Small businesses employ roughly 80 percent of all workers in both Texas and the United States. We must make sure that our recovery includes homes and the life blood of the Lake Houston area, our small businesses. So please, share this information with small business owners you may know so we can help them rebuild and thrive. Let them know that the broader community is working on their behalf.
Posted by Mark Mitchell President, Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership
242 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2018-04-28 16:25:432018-04-29 10:40:08Help for Small Businesses Recovering from Harvey in Lake Houston Area
In a motion approved at its 4/26/2018 board meeting, the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) officially entered the flood management business. The SJRA board also introduced the man, Chuck Gilman, who will head its new Flood Management Division. In a third major decision, the SJRA board voted to seasonally lower the level of Lake Conroe to help provide a larger buffer against future flooding.
New SJRA Flood Management Division Established
The SJRA board tasked its new flood management division with identifying “projects and other actions that may be undertaken by the Authority to address flood events along the San Jacinto River and protect the lives and property of Texans living within the watershed.” The FloodManagement Division will also identify sources of funding for such projects and implement them. The SJRA Flood Management Division will examine both immediate and long-term solutions that address flooding along the San Jacinto.
The SJRA has already begun work on an area-wide study of such possibilities. They include, according to board members, additional detention, more gages to enhance flood warning capabilities farther upstream, and a new system to help predict when floods will crest at various places within the watershed.
Chuck Gilman named new Director of Flood Management
Charles R. “Chuck” Gilman, Jr., P.E., will head the new division as Director of Flood Management. Gilman has more than 20 years of experience in civil engineering.
“We are extremely pleased to be adding someone of Chuck’s caliber and experience,” noted Jace Houston, SJRA’s general manager.
Jason Stuebe, Humble city manager, agreed with Houston’s assessment. “I think he will really understand the flooding issues facing our region and be able to help develop meaningful solutions.”
Before joining the SJRA, Gilman served as Deputy Chief Manager of the City of College Station and Interim City Manager. During his time at College Station, he also served as the Assistant Director of Water Services, Director of Capital Projects, and Director of Public Works. His administrative expertise pertains to utilities, transportation, drainage, emergency planning and response, planning and zoning, and legislative and governmental affairs.
Gilman is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas and holds a Project Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute.
Seasonal Lowering of Lake Conroe
At its 4/26/2018 meeting, the SJRA Board also voted to temporarily lower Lake Conroe on a seasonal basis. Lowering the lake will help comply with Governor Abbott’s directive to minimize downstream flooding.
Said Mark Micheletti, one of the two new SJRA board members from Kingwood, “This is major initiative and it will provide temporary relief until permanent solutions are in place.”
Normally, the SJRA maintains the level of Lake Conroe at 201 feet above mean sea level (MSL).The board voted to lower Lake Conroe by one foot to 200 MSL from April 1 through May 31. The board also voted to lower the lake between August and October, the peak of hurricane season. Lowering would start on August 1, with a target of 200 MSL. SJRA would lower it another foot – to 199 MSL – between September 1 and October 31. It is unclear at this time whether additional rain that fell in late October would be released or whether it would be retained to begin bringing the lake back up to its normal level.
In summary, this keeps the lake one foot below normal in the spring, one foot below normal during August and an average of two feet below normal for most of September and October. This plan will be reviewed annually in February to make adjustments as needed.
At the Board Meeting, four Kingwood residents and a representative of the Lake Conroe Area Homeowners Association, all spoke in favor of temporary seasonal adjustments to the lake level as a way to mitigate flooding.
Not Yet a Done Deal
Kaaren Cambio, the other new SJRA board member from Kingwood, said, “The plan is contingent on approval from other bodies. The TCEQ must allow an exception for the diversion of water and the City of Houston will need to approve this initiative. Nevertheless, until permanent measures can be implemented, winning the SJRA board’s approval to lower the lake is a major step in the right direction.”
By Bob Rehak
Posted April 27, 2018, 241 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2018-04-27 11:22:392018-04-27 13:12:48Three New SJRA Flood-Management Actions
Jennifer Trimble in front of her nearly restored home
Seven months after Hurricane Harvey flooded her home in the middle of the night, Jennifer Trimble still cannot hear the sound of a helicopter or rain beating on her windows without choking back tears.
Trimble, a single mother of an 11 year old son, lost her job before Hurricane Harvey dumped 40 inches of rain on the Lake Houston area. Like most of her neighbors, she had no flood insurance. “Everyone said that it never flooded here, that we were safe.” Trimble lives more than a mile from the San Jacinto River, two blocks north of Kingwood Drive in an area that had escaped previous “500 year” rains in 1994, 2001, 2015, and 2016. But her luck ran out with Harvey.
“With some warning…I could have saved myself from most of this terrible experience.”
Now, while picking at some enchiladas in a TexMex restaurant (that had also flooded), she tells the story of the night when she stepped out of bed at 4:30 a.m. into muddy water and reached for a light switch. Reliving those moments of panic, her story careens from desperate attempts to escape to the kindness of strangers, her faith in God, contractor woes, the search for a new job, and the politics of flood mitigation.
Flying Into the Eye of the Storm
The week before Harvey, Trimble had gone to Illinois to visit her mother who had been hospitalized. She recalls reading about Harvey, then a tropical storm, while flying back to Houston on August 23rd.
“By the time we got back, the forecast had changed to a hurricane,” she said. When the storm made landfall on Friday, August 25, she still wasn’t very worried. After all, she had lived and worked through Katrina in Louisiana more than decade earlier.
Back then, she worked in personnel for an oil company and helped hundreds of employees who had lost their homes. “But I didn’t think anything like that could ever happen here,” she continued. “We are too far inland. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on food and batteries just in case, but I wasn’t worried.”
Worries Rise with the Water
“Each night through the hurricane, I woke up from the rain. By the 28th, water was coming up everywhere. The drainage ditch was overflowing onto Kingwood Drive. Water was coming up from the greenbelt. That night, we made plans to evacuate in the morning even though I still didn’t think we would flood,” said Trimble.
The street in front of Trimble’s home as she and her son were being rescued by boat.
“I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and stepped out of bed into floodwater. I was kind of groggy and didn’t realize what was happening at first. I turned on a lamp that was plugged into a power strip on the floor. The power was still on. I was lucky we weren’t electrocuted.”
“I froze. For a full minute. Then I called the next door neighbor to let them know that their house would be flooding, too. I posted on the NextDoor app that I was flooding.”
Neighbors and Social Media to the Rescue
Trimble continued. “Two people I didn’t even know offered to come to my house and help. One person made it to the house, but couldn’t get in because of water already chest deep in the street. My car in the garage had water over the tires. We were trapped.”
“My neighbor and another person from social media came at 5:00 a.m. They helped move small items like electronics, an end table – anything we could salvage – upstairs. Through all of this, I’ll never forget seeing my cat in the office, sitting on top of my desk as the water was rising.”
Temporary Escape to Neighbor’s House
“We finally escaped out of the front door to my neighbor’s house in hip-deep water. While moving things upstairs, I was in ‘go mode.’
It wasn’t until I was in my neighbor’s house looking back at my house that it hit me. There was so much water. My whole house was sitting in the middle of a lake – and I didn’t have flood insurance.”
Jennifer Trimble’s home as seen from neighbor’s second story.
“Then my neighbor’s house started to take on water, too. At 9 a.m., another Kingwood resident rescued us by boat. I was so grateful.”
Search for Safety and Stability
As word of Trimble’s plight spread to friends, offers of help started coming in. Several offered her places to stay until she could recover. She and her son stayed with a friend in Mills Branch through the middle of October. “Then, we moved on to another friend.
“Because of my son’s allergies, we couldn’t move back in until all the drywall repairs were finished.”
My son has asthma and allergies, so we couldn’t get back into our house right away. We had to get rid of all the mold and mildew. The house had to dry out thoroughly and be disinfected. We also had to make sure the walls were up and textured. It took a long time. Sometimes I can talk about it, but other times I get emotional,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes.
Rebuilding a Home and her Life
“After the water receded, I had many people helping with demo work,” said Trimble. “Friends, friends of friends, strangers, people from my church. By Saturday noon, we were done. In two and a half days, everything was knocked out and gone.”
Flood debris ready for removal in front of Trimble home.
“When the San Antonio crews came to haul the trash away, I was happy, but cried my heart out. It’s so emotional to see your life being carried away. Our house is close to livable again. The master bath is the last major piece, though there are still lots of little details. Some things will just have to wait. Like the deck on the back of the house. We lost it altogether.“
“The hardest part for me is dealing with my contractors. Sometimes, I want to scream. I’m so frustrated. It seems like we always get up-charged. The cost never goes down if we substitute something cheaper. And then there are mistakes. For instance, we ordered a new door, but they trimmed excess height off the bottom instead of the top. So we had to order another. Seven months after the flood, we’re still waiting on the replacement. I’m tired of dealing with it,” said Trimble.
Making Do Until Making More
In rebuilding her home, Trimble received help from many unexpected sources.
“A Facebook page, Flooding Kingwood with Kindness, has been my source of sanity,” she says. There, people who have items to donate find people who need donations.
“My sister also started a ‘Go-Fund-Me’ page where friends and family could make donations to my recovery effort.”
“FEMA was very good to me. They gave me the maximum amount. My family and friends also kicked in. And I created an Amazon wish list to help offset expenses.”
“Still, I’m glad that I was a diligent saver. Without a job and without savings, we would have been sunk.”
“I’m frugal. With the exception of new bedroom furniture, I bought used things to replace furniture we lost. I just won’t buy everything for a while, until I build savings back up.”
Trimble recently started a new job. “It was a blessing that I wasn’t working during the recovery. There were so many things that went wrong. If I wasn’t there to address them right away, it would have been a disaster. As it was, I got my son off to school at 8 a.m. then worked all day on the house until 8, 9, or 10 at night for a long stretch.”
Trimble has been a single mother for nine years. “Rebuilding was overwhelming at times,” she said. “I lived through Katrina, Gustav and two surgeries, but this is the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I look back now and think everything that came before was God’s way of preparing me.”
Natural disasters bring out the best in people
Much of Trimble’s interview focuses on the generosity of people around her. “Total strangers rescued us. Friends opened their hearts and homes. Neighbors washed laundry that had been flooded. Others helped tear out sheet rock and tile. My church started a support group. FEMA gave us help. Ted Poe broke through red tape. It’s all been amazing.”
Still, the trauma of Harvey makes sleeping difficult. How does she cope? “My experience as a single parent helped me get through this…and my faith in God. I don’t know how I would have made it without my faith!”
“I can’t do this again.”
Said Trimble, “I want to do what I can so that this never happens again.”
Trimble has participated in the Lake Houston Chamber’s Plea for 3 and Plea to See initiatives. She has also participated in the Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative and demonstrated outside the community center when Governor Abbott visited the area.
“When we got those flood warnings in February and March,” she said, “I felt horrible. I’m scared. I have angst about what will happen every time it rains.”
“We need to dredge. We need better communication. Clearly, we got no warnings. With some warning, I could have moved everything upstairs. I could have moved my car. My son and I could have gotten out. I could have saved myself from having most of this terrible experience,” she says, choking back tears.
“Clearly, there needs to be a better plan with permitting. They need to get to a place where they can lower the lake level. They’re fumbling right now; figuring everything out as they go. We need more coordinated flood control; all these entities don’t work well together.”
“Everybody underestimated the impact that this was going to have and how long it would last. The emotional and mental toll is draining. A disaster like this impacts daily life, the ability of people to hold a job, to parent their children, and to navigate through life in general.”
Interviewed by Bob Rehak, Posted April 26, 240 Days After Hurricane Harvey
Help for Small Businesses Recovering from Harvey in Lake Houston Area
While Harvey had a devastating impact on the area’s residential community, what we’ve not yet come to fully address or understand is the impact Harvey had on small businesses.
44 Percent of Area Small Businesses Affected by Harvey
The Small Business Administration issued more than 3,300 unique identifiers for businesses in the aftermath of Harvey. This represents almost 44 percent of all businesses in the Lake Houston area. While some business devastation was obvious in Humble along I-69, or Town Center and Kings Harbor in Kingwood, a multitude of other low-profile businesses also suffered physical damage and economic loss.
Commercial Area near FM1960 and Atascocita Road looking west toward Lake Houston
There is no FEMA equivalent for small businesses; many were left without help after Harvey. As a result, many small business owners depleted life savings, took out home equity loans or drew down retirement accounts to keep their businesses running. For the many that lost homes as well as businesses, circumstances were even more dire.
The SBA made a significant positive impact to the area’s small businesses. But not all businesses qualified for a loan and a majority of SBA funding went to residents. Typically, 80 percent goes to residential and 20 percent to small businesses.
Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership Helps Address Gaps
To address this imbalance, the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership partnered with SBA, LiftFund, Federal Home Loan Bank, Lake Houston Area Relief Fund, Rebuild Texas Fund and several others. Our goal: to help small businesses via zero interest deferred loans, newly developed grant programs, tax credits and disaster recovery assistance.
We cannot meet current demand for all small business assistance. However, we can build long-term support systems to help the Lake Houston Area recover, and to keep it vibrant and growing.
Two small business funding programs have begun to make a significant impact in our area; both focus on accelerating recovery from Harvey.
Zero Interest Loans from LiftFund
First, LiftFund has been a partner of the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership and Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce since October of 2017. We hosted their first satellite workshop in the chamber offices on November 2, 2017, and have since funded several Lake Houston area businesses with zero interest loans up to $25,000 with a four month deferment period.
The current LiftFund minimum application requirements include a direct physical and or financial impact from Hurricane Harvey, having been in business at least one year prior to Harvey, and the ability to provide other documentation. That documentation includes three months of business and personal bank statements along with the company’s most recently filed tax return. LiftFund’s disaster recovery loan application link is: https://www.liftfund.com/texas-rebuild-initiative/.
Grant Program for Small Businesses
Our second small business funding program launched in March 2018 – the Lake Houston Harvey Small Business Grant Program. It provides grants ranging from $2500 to $5000 for businesses directly impacted by Harvey. It only covers the Lake Houston area – zip codes 770044, 77338, 77339, 77345, 77346 and 77396. Individual companies must have been in business at least a year before Harvey and provide business and personal bank statements along with their most recently filed federal tax return.
Grant dollars can be used for operations and asset purchases directly related to Harvey recovery. The full guidelines and qualification criteria can be found on the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership’s website: http://www.lakehoustonedp.org/lha-harvey-small-business-grant/or by emailing mmitchell@lakehouston.org.
Small Businesses Employ 80 Percent of All Employees
Small businesses employ roughly 80 percent of all workers in both Texas and the United States. We must make sure that our recovery includes homes and the life blood of the Lake Houston area, our small businesses. So please, share this information with small business owners you may know so we can help them rebuild and thrive. Let them know that the broader community is working on their behalf.
Posted by Mark Mitchell
President, Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership
242 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Three New SJRA Flood-Management Actions
SJRA Flood Gate at Lake Conroe
In a motion approved at its 4/26/2018 board meeting, the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) officially entered the flood management business. The SJRA board also introduced the man, Chuck Gilman, who will head its new Flood Management Division. In a third major decision, the SJRA board voted to seasonally lower the level of Lake Conroe to help provide a larger buffer against future flooding.
New SJRA Flood Management Division Established
The SJRA board tasked its new flood management division with identifying “projects and other actions that may be undertaken by the Authority to address flood events along the San Jacinto River and protect the lives and property of Texans living within the watershed.” The FloodManagement Division will also identify sources of funding for such projects and implement them. The SJRA Flood Management Division will examine both immediate and long-term solutions that address flooding along the San Jacinto.
The SJRA has already begun work on an area-wide study of such possibilities. They include, according to board members, additional detention, more gages to enhance flood warning capabilities farther upstream, and a new system to help predict when floods will crest at various places within the watershed.
Chuck Gilman named new Director of Flood Management
Charles R. “Chuck” Gilman, Jr., P.E., will head the new division as Director of Flood Management. Gilman has more than 20 years of experience in civil engineering.
“We are extremely pleased to be adding someone of Chuck’s caliber and experience,” noted Jace Houston, SJRA’s general manager.
Jason Stuebe, Humble city manager, agreed with Houston’s assessment. “I think he will really understand the flooding issues facing our region and be able to help develop meaningful solutions.”
Before joining the SJRA, Gilman served as Deputy Chief Manager of the City of College Station and Interim City Manager. During his time at College Station, he also served as the Assistant Director of Water Services, Director of Capital Projects, and Director of Public Works. His administrative expertise pertains to utilities, transportation, drainage, emergency planning and response, planning and zoning, and legislative and governmental affairs.
Gilman is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas and holds a Project Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute.
Seasonal Lowering of Lake Conroe
At its 4/26/2018 meeting, the SJRA Board also voted to temporarily lower Lake Conroe on a seasonal basis. Lowering the lake will help comply with Governor Abbott’s directive to minimize downstream flooding.
Said Mark Micheletti, one of the two new SJRA board members from Kingwood, “This is major initiative and it will provide temporary relief until permanent solutions are in place.”
Normally, the SJRA maintains the level of Lake Conroe at 201 feet above mean sea level (MSL).The board voted to lower Lake Conroe by one foot to 200 MSL from April 1 through May 31. The board also voted to lower the lake between August and October, the peak of hurricane season. Lowering would start on August 1, with a target of 200 MSL. SJRA would lower it another foot – to 199 MSL – between September 1 and October 31. It is unclear at this time whether additional rain that fell in late October would be released or whether it would be retained to begin bringing the lake back up to its normal level.
In summary, this keeps the lake one foot below normal in the spring, one foot below normal during August and an average of two feet below normal for most of September and October. This plan will be reviewed annually in February to make adjustments as needed.
At the Board Meeting, four Kingwood residents and a representative of the Lake Conroe Area Homeowners Association, all spoke in favor of temporary seasonal adjustments to the lake level as a way to mitigate flooding.
Not Yet a Done Deal
Kaaren Cambio, the other new SJRA board member from Kingwood, said, “The plan is contingent on approval from other bodies. The TCEQ must allow an exception for the diversion of water and the City of Houston will need to approve this initiative. Nevertheless, until permanent measures can be implemented, winning the SJRA board’s approval to lower the lake is a major step in the right direction.”
By Bob Rehak
Posted April 27, 2018, 241 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Jennifer Trimble’s Hurricane Harvey Experience
Jennifer Trimble in front of her nearly restored home
Seven months after Hurricane Harvey flooded her home in the middle of the night, Jennifer Trimble still cannot hear the sound of a helicopter or rain beating on her windows without choking back tears.
Trimble, a single mother of an 11 year old son, lost her job before Hurricane Harvey dumped 40 inches of rain on the Lake Houston area. Like most of her neighbors, she had no flood insurance. “Everyone said that it never flooded here, that we were safe.” Trimble lives more than a mile from the San Jacinto River, two blocks north of Kingwood Drive in an area that had escaped previous “500 year” rains in 1994, 2001, 2015, and 2016. But her luck ran out with Harvey.
Now, while picking at some enchiladas in a TexMex restaurant (that had also flooded), she tells the story of the night when she stepped out of bed at 4:30 a.m. into muddy water and reached for a light switch. Reliving those moments of panic, her story careens from desperate attempts to escape to the kindness of strangers, her faith in God, contractor woes, the search for a new job, and the politics of flood mitigation.
Flying Into the Eye of the Storm
The week before Harvey, Trimble had gone to Illinois to visit her mother who had been hospitalized. She recalls reading about Harvey, then a tropical storm, while flying back to Houston on August 23rd.
“By the time we got back, the forecast had changed to a hurricane,” she said. When the storm made landfall on Friday, August 25, she still wasn’t very worried. After all, she had lived and worked through Katrina in Louisiana more than decade earlier.
Back then, she worked in personnel for an oil company and helped hundreds of employees who had lost their homes. “But I didn’t think anything like that could ever happen here,” she continued. “We are too far inland. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on food and batteries just in case, but I wasn’t worried.”
Worries Rise with the Water
“Each night through the hurricane, I woke up from the rain. By the 28th, water was coming up everywhere. The drainage ditch was overflowing onto Kingwood Drive. Water was coming up from the greenbelt. That night, we made plans to evacuate in the morning even though I still didn’t think we would flood,” said Trimble.
The street in front of Trimble’s home as she and her son were being rescued by boat.
“I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and stepped out of bed into floodwater. I was kind of groggy and didn’t realize what was happening at first. I turned on a lamp that was plugged into a power strip on the floor. The power was still on. I was lucky we weren’t electrocuted.”
“I froze. For a full minute. Then I called the next door neighbor to let them know that their house would be flooding, too. I posted on the NextDoor app that I was flooding.”
Neighbors and Social Media to the Rescue
Trimble continued. “Two people I didn’t even know offered to come to my house and help. One person made it to the house, but couldn’t get in because of water already chest deep in the street. My car in the garage had water over the tires. We were trapped.”
“My neighbor and another person from social media came at 5:00 a.m. They helped move small items like electronics, an end table – anything we could salvage – upstairs. Through all of this, I’ll never forget seeing my cat in the office, sitting on top of my desk as the water was rising.”
Temporary Escape to Neighbor’s House
“We finally escaped out of the front door to my neighbor’s house in hip-deep water. While moving things upstairs, I was in ‘go mode.’
It wasn’t until I was in my neighbor’s house looking back at my house that it hit me. There was so much water. My whole house was sitting in the middle of a lake – and I didn’t have flood insurance.”
Jennifer Trimble’s home as seen from neighbor’s second story.
“Then my neighbor’s house started to take on water, too. At 9 a.m., another Kingwood resident rescued us by boat. I was so grateful.”
Search for Safety and Stability
As word of Trimble’s plight spread to friends, offers of help started coming in. Several offered her places to stay until she could recover. She and her son stayed with a friend in Mills Branch through the middle of October. “Then, we moved on to another friend.
“Because of my son’s allergies, we couldn’t move back in until all the drywall repairs were finished.”
My son has asthma and allergies, so we couldn’t get back into our house right away. We had to get rid of all the mold and mildew. The house had to dry out thoroughly and be disinfected. We also had to make sure the walls were up and textured. It took a long time. Sometimes I can talk about it, but other times I get emotional,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes.
Rebuilding a Home and her Life
“After the water receded, I had many people helping with demo work,” said Trimble. “Friends, friends of friends, strangers, people from my church. By Saturday noon, we were done. In two and a half days, everything was knocked out and gone.”
Flood debris ready for removal in front of Trimble home.
“When the San Antonio crews came to haul the trash away, I was happy, but cried my heart out. It’s so emotional to see your life being carried away. Our house is close to livable again. The master bath is the last major piece, though there are still lots of little details. Some things will just have to wait. Like the deck on the back of the house. We lost it altogether.“
“The hardest part for me is dealing with my contractors. Sometimes, I want to scream. I’m so frustrated. It seems like we always get up-charged. The cost never goes down if we substitute something cheaper. And then there are mistakes. For instance, we ordered a new door, but they trimmed excess height off the bottom instead of the top. So we had to order another. Seven months after the flood, we’re still waiting on the replacement. I’m tired of dealing with it,” said Trimble.
Making Do Until Making More
In rebuilding her home, Trimble received help from many unexpected sources.
“A Facebook page, Flooding Kingwood with Kindness, has been my source of sanity,” she says. There, people who have items to donate find people who need donations.
“My sister also started a ‘Go-Fund-Me’ page where friends and family could make donations to my recovery effort.”
“FEMA was very good to me. They gave me the maximum amount. My family and friends also kicked in. And I created an Amazon wish list to help offset expenses.”
“Still, I’m glad that I was a diligent saver. Without a job and without savings, we would have been sunk.”
“I’m frugal. With the exception of new bedroom furniture, I bought used things to replace furniture we lost. I just won’t buy everything for a while, until I build savings back up.”
Trimble recently started a new job. “It was a blessing that I wasn’t working during the recovery. There were so many things that went wrong. If I wasn’t there to address them right away, it would have been a disaster. As it was, I got my son off to school at 8 a.m. then worked all day on the house until 8, 9, or 10 at night for a long stretch.”
Trimble has been a single mother for nine years. “Rebuilding was overwhelming at times,” she said. “I lived through Katrina, Gustav and two surgeries, but this is the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I look back now and think everything that came before was God’s way of preparing me.”
Natural disasters bring out the best in people
Much of Trimble’s interview focuses on the generosity of people around her. “Total strangers rescued us. Friends opened their hearts and homes. Neighbors washed laundry that had been flooded. Others helped tear out sheet rock and tile. My church started a support group. FEMA gave us help. Ted Poe broke through red tape. It’s all been amazing.”
Still, the trauma of Harvey makes sleeping difficult. How does she cope? “My experience as a single parent helped me get through this…and my faith in God. I don’t know how I would have made it without my faith!”
“I can’t do this again.”
Said Trimble, “I want to do what I can so that this never happens again.”
Trimble has participated in the Lake Houston Chamber’s Plea for 3 and Plea to See initiatives. She has also participated in the Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative and demonstrated outside the community center when Governor Abbott visited the area.
“When we got those flood warnings in February and March,” she said, “I felt horrible. I’m scared. I have angst about what will happen every time it rains.”
“We need to dredge. We need better communication. Clearly, we got no warnings. With some warning, I could have moved everything upstairs. I could have moved my car. My son and I could have gotten out. I could have saved myself from having most of this terrible experience,” she says, choking back tears.
“Clearly, there needs to be a better plan with permitting. They need to get to a place where they can lower the lake level. They’re fumbling right now; figuring everything out as they go. We need more coordinated flood control; all these entities don’t work well together.”
“Everybody underestimated the impact that this was going to have and how long it would last. The emotional and mental toll is draining. A disaster like this impacts daily life, the ability of people to hold a job, to parent their children, and to navigate through life in general.”
Interviewed by Bob Rehak,
Posted April 26, 240 Days After Hurricane Harvey