On the recordMarch 15, 2018
It is 8 months since Hurricane Harvey devastated parts of the State of Texas and the United States. We are engaged in an assessment, and I will tell you, after 88 people died, people are still in hotels, houses are still in disrepair, and we are still in need. We are a strong State and a resilient city with great leaders who work very hard. But I think it is important that, as we try to recover, we work to restructure FEMA, as we are assessing right now in a hearing, so that we can address the questions that 300-plus of my constituents on March 5 in Kashmere Gardens--heavily hit, along with northeast Houston--asked the questions: Why were there so many FEMA denials? Why did the inspectors see 4 inches of rain in your house and it was 4 feet? What is the structure that we can utilize to allow people to come out of hotels and get into housing when they don't have a down payment or they don't have the first month's rent? This is a holistic approach. We need to reform FEMA from the perspective of housing and the Stafford Act. We need to structure FEMA in the rescue part and the recovery part. We need answers, and my constituents need answers now regarding the many, many denials that have stopped them from proceeding with their lives. ____________________
