Credits:Ketk.com
On Monday afternoon, the parking lot of the Acres Homes Multi-Service Center was packed, with people lining the streets outside. Some were waiting for food and water distribution, while others hoped to apply for federal recovery aid after Hurricane Beryl.
“We still don’t have lights at the house, shingles flew out, a fence is down,” said Leticia Lee, a Houston native and resident of Spring. “We’ve been trying to find gas and other stuff. Work is out too… we’ve lost thousands of dollars.”
The Acres Homes center was one of a few FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers that reopened in Harris County by Monday morning. More than 60 individuals and their families crowded the waiting area, hoping for relief.
These centers were initially opened by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after a derecho storm hit Houston in May. Now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, they were reopening slowly. Information about the reopenings was also slow to disseminate, with some people only finding out through word of mouth or after visiting other closed locations.
By 1 p.m. on Monday, Lee and her cousin Deborah Sanders had waited for three hours to speak to a FEMA representative. They were given numbers 97 and 98, with the last number called still in the 70s. Despite the air conditioning, their anxiety was building.
Applicants were asked to have basic personal information ready, such as home and mailing addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and banking and insurance information. Missing information could be added after the initial application, according to disasterassistance.gov.
“I just brought some proof of where I live, a light bill, which I can’t afford to pay today,” Lee said.
On Monday morning, FEMA’s Hurricane Beryl page was not displaying any reopened centers, but the agency’s general Disaster Recovery Center locator was functional.
At the Acres Homes center, about 17 FEMA representatives assisted applicants in a busy second-floor room. Shortly after 1 p.m., one representative announced that three more centers had reopened for those willing to go elsewhere. People immediately left their seats to grab a printed copy of the list. The newly reopened centers included the Spring Spirit Sports and Education Complex, the Thomas A. Glazier Senior Education Center, and the Leon Z Grayson Community Center.
“They want you to drive out there and wait, but we’ve been waiting here,” a woman, who declined to be identified, remarked as she stood up to get the list.
The speed at which centers were reopening remained unclear. Janice Neal drove in from Humble seeking answers. She had been without power since Monday, July 8, and without access to a phone. Her safety net, an electric generator, had stopped working shortly after she lost power.
“My casualties are my safety nets,” Neal said. “If they give me $500, or what the news has been saying, $750, I can get me another generator… or a phone, which is now completely dead.”
Most people interviewed at the Acres Homes center were first-time aid applicants. Many didn’t have electricity or wifi at home to access the online application, some had spent hours on the phone waiting, and others had heard of online applications being denied and preferred to apply in person.
