What to know about assistance and flood recovery in San Angelo: FEMA declares disaster
Now that over a week has passed since the floods, here is what is next for San Angelo and the residents affected by the flooding.
Damage Resource Center
The Damage Resource Center at PaulAnn Church has moved to the Concho Valley Transit annex building at 506 N. Chadbourne St. Resources will be available to the public from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
More: Police, City of San Angelo issue order of restricted areas due to flooding
More: San Angelo pets in need after historic flood
The center aims to be a comprehensive, one-stop resource for flood survivors to access critical support and begin their recovery process.
The following services will be offered at the new Damage Resource Center:
Federal Emergency Management Agency application assistance
Help filling out individual assistance paperwork
FEMA case worker support
Guidance on documentation requirements
Translation services for non-English speakers
Intake services for local assistance programs
Connection to local support agencies
Information about emergency housing options
Guidance on utility assistance
Small Business Administration loan information
The San Angelo Community Organizations Active in Disaster will continue to provide immediate and long-term assistance to those affected by the flood through the new DRC at the Concho Valley Transit annex building.
The COAD will provide referrals to specific services, information about cleanup efforts and guidance on insurance claims. The coalition is made up of nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, faith-based groups and volunteer organizations.
For residents needing household items, the Concho Valley Turning Point warehouse will be another distribution center for those items while the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank will be a facility providing food assistance. There will also be essential household items available at the Concho Valley Transit annex building.
Transportation to the DRC, Concho Valley Turning Point, and Concho Valley Regional Food Bank will be provided by COAD.
Financial Assistance
Financial recovery is being managed by the San Angelo Area Foundation, which has already raised over $1 million through 800 individual donations. An emergency grant program is being developed to support affected residents.
'Now that may sound like a lot of money,' Mike Lewis, president and CEO of the San Angelo Area Foundation, said. 'That may sound great. On the first Tuesday in May, our community raised $4 million in 24 hours for a lot of nonprofits called San Angelo Hands, so I know we can raise more money.'
Individuals are encouraged to continue donating money to the San Angelo Area Foundation online.
Community officials said the FEMA emergency grants have not started yet, and more information will be released as soon as possible.
Clean-up efforts
COAD has already begun helping residents affected by the flooding by cleaning their homes and businesses. Galilee CDC is now overseeing the cleanup efforts. By analyzing data from submitted Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool Surveys, they aim to compile a comprehensive list of homes that still require cleaning.
COAD and Galilee CDC identified six teams vetted as approved cleaning organizations: TLC in San Angelo, Rubicon, Samaritans, Minutemen Disaster Relief, God's Pit Crew and Texans on Mission.
The organizations will be in Tom Green County this weekend to help with ongoing efforts. Even though local, state and national organizations are coming to assist in cleanup, city and community officials urge residents to continue helping clean debris from homes and to coordinate with COAD and Galilee CDC.
The CBCAA contacted local utility companies in the area and made arrangements not to disconnect any services. Residents are still urged to contact their utility providers.
Paul Witwer covers high school sports and Angelo State University sports for The San Angelo Standard-Times. Reach him at sports@gosanangelo.com. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @Paul_Witwer.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: FEMA declares disaster: San Angelo launches flood recovery plan
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"We are already seeing similar out-migration trends in places like coastal Florida, where there are similar problems of severe natural disaster risk, unraveling insurance markets, and evidence of post-pandemic overbuilding," he said. "A lack of affordable insurance may push prospective homeowners to look elsewhere, such as in climate haven cities in the northern U.S. which are among the few housing markets growing right now." LaPoint believes the areas directly impacted by the flash flood are likely to face "a continued decline in house prices and rents, which was already in progress after the recovery from the pandemic." Other experts, however, are skeptical about the idea of people choosing to live elsewhere because of the floods. "It might temporarily influence some homebuyer decisions, but the appeal of those counties will not likely change," Dr. Daniel Oney, research director at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, told Newsweek. "There may be some outside investor interest, but with mortgage rates currently high, investor activity is down overall—they rely on cheap credit to make their business models work." Baldwin is sure that Texas Hill Country will remain a popular vacation spot despite the risk of flash floods. "If you're from here, you've grown up going to the Guadalupe, or the Frio, or the Trinity. And it's a time-honored tradition to go to these places," he said. "Despite the tragedy, people will keep vacationing there, as we've seen people build after a hurricane or after other disasters. Houston is very hurricane-prone, but we added 75,000 people last year to the greater Houston area. They're not deciding against moving here because of the hurricane. They're learning to live with the new intensity of weather-related events." A Texas state flag flies in a yard filled with debris on July 6 in Hunt, Texas. 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"Many of the people who are still on vacation around the greater Houston, Dallas, Austin area are gonna go to Fredericksburg or Round Top or Wimberley or one of these places that aren't necessarily related to the river, but they're still in the Hill Country and they have the same climate," he said. The greatest impact of this temporary exodus of tourists will be felt by working-class people, Baldwin added. "It's the maid who can't work in that deal, it's the lawn guy who doesn't have a job, it's the waitress who doesn't have anyone to wait on because the restaurant was closed for two weeks and did not have any unemployment insurance." These people, Baldwin said, need Texans' help—and he thinks locals will be rushing back to support them. 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He added: "However, changes in house prices may not always translate to immediate changes in property tax bills due to the stickiness of assessed values and limits on rates. Recent amendments to property tax law in Texas increased homestead exemptions and made it more difficult for cities to raise rates. This will make it difficult for cities to close any short-run revenue gaps without aid from the state government." In its research, Cotality has found that areas that are frequently impacted by natural disasters experience a longer-term reduction in property values, while areas that are only occasionally hit experience a short-term drop. "What we have noticed is that over time, things start to regress back to normal. So especially in areas that are not impacted on a monthly or annual basis, if it's a decade in between flooding events, there's a bit of a short-term memory mentality." A person pays their respects at a memorial honoring the lives lost in the flash floods that claimed at least 135 lives on July 13 in Kerville, Texas. A person pays their respects at a memorial honoring the lives lost in the flash floods that claimed at least 135 lives on July 13 in Kerville, Changes We Can Expect the State Government to Make A majority of the experts who spoke to Newsweek expect the floods will not spur a seismic change in the state's real estate sector. "Texas is a strong property rights state. The governor [Greg Abbott] has called a special session with a few flood-related items, but they are limited to immediate relief efforts, flood warning systems, and streamlining regulations to help recovery," Oney said. "Additional property tax relief was on the session agenda before the floods. So, we don't expect the state to take any action that impacts markets long term because of this disaster." Texans who decide to stay in flood-prone areas are also unlikely to see much in the way of home improvement efforts, LaPoint said. "This is because it's difficult for individual homeowners to make these kinds of physical investments in their property—such as putting the home on stilts—given the relatively high costs involved," he said. "My research on Florida shows that publicly-backed loans can help homeowners fund hurricane-proofing projects that lower their insurance costs and increase the home's value. But projects like new window installations are much cheaper than flood prevention improvements." "Given the financial barriers faced by individual homeowners, there may be renewed calls from residents for the state to invest in key anti-flood prevention measures." Baldwin expects authorities to "probably increase the regulatory environment of a floodway" and update the maps the state is currently using to identify flood-prone areas—though that does not mean that those areas would be considered off-limits for developers, he said. "We're still going to build in these areas, we're just going to learn to build more resiliently," Baldwin added. "They will rebuild in some of these areas that some people would say you shouldn't be building in. It's probably not a practical solution. But it's how we build. People are driven to the coast, whether it's the East Coast, the West Coast, the Florida coast, or the Texas coast. So, you'll still have some development, you'll still have people willing to buy those structures." He continued: "There will be awareness for a brief period of time. But who's going to move there five years from now? They're going to be from California. They're going to be from the East Coast. They're not gonna have been there during that event. They'd have a small recollection, but no realistic experience. That's what happened in Houston. So, I still think people are gonna be at risk."
