Residents frustrated by slow FEMA help

By TJ Aulds

SAN LEON — To gaze out onto Galveston Bay from Bayshore Park in San Leon, it would be hard to tell that a hurricane devastated this community two weeks ago.

Turn to your right, though, and the lines of people waiting to meet with FEMA representatives or to get a hot meal from the Red Cross bring you quickly back to reality.

It is estimated that 1,500 of San Leon’s 1,815 households sustained severe damage from Hurricane Ike. Many of those would be better classified as catastrophic.

Joe Manchaca, president of the San Leon Municipal Utility District board of directors, said the district estimates that almost 40 percent of its residential customers are “totally lost.”

By those estimates, 726 of the homes in the unincorporated community along the shores of Galveston Bay are no longer standing, meaning that as many as 1,746 residents might be displaced or homeless because of the hurricane.

“There’s really no telling now what those numbers really are, they could go up, we just don’t know,” Manchaca said.

“There are just so many people who haven’t come home yet, so we just don’t know for sure.”

Kathy Brandon is among those 1,746 displaced residents and was among the hundreds waiting in line at a mobile FEMA disaster recovery center in Bayshore Park seeking help. Help that was slow in coming.

“I don’t have money. I feel like I am begging for help,” a tearful Brandon said as she waited for her name to be called at the recovery center. “They helped out the Katrina victims. Why aren’t they here helping us?”

Despite the devastation in San Leon and neighboring Bacliff, the mobile FEMA center did not arrive until Thursday. That was only after some arm-twisting from the area’s county constable, Pam Matranga.

“(Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff) said on TV that as soon as the storm passed, he would be here. Where is he?” Brandon said. “I’ve seen him in Houston. I’ve seen him in Galveston. He hasn’t been here. No one has been in San Leon. The TV stations ain’t here.

“We are getting left out. People need to see what’s happened here. We got wiped out.”

Brandon lived in a trailer in the Sea Breeze RV Park in San Leon. Not only is the place she called home gone, so is her job.

“I hate begging. I’ve always made my (own) way. We don’t have much money, but it’s mine,” said Brandon.

Steve Hoyland knows all too well the hurt Brandon and others in the community are feeling. The longtime community activist is rallying locals to help others in San Leon, even as his own house and boat were destroyed by the hurricane.

Hoyland assembled 50 residents in front of what is left of the San Leon Fire Department to lay out a plan to help the community recover. Much of that focus will be to help the elderly and sick make repairs or rebuild their homes.

The effort might include collecting money and then using those funds to hire locals who have lost their jobs because of the storm to rebuild San Leon. Details of the plan are to be worked out, said Hoyland.

A registration process though for those needing the assistance is under way. San Leon residents who need the help or know someone who is elderly or disabled can put their name on a list at Sullivan Pharmacy on FM 646.

A relief fund has also been set up with donations being accepted at Bacliff Lumber are online at www.sanleontexas.com.

The hurt in San Leon extends beyond the residents. Hurricane Ike also devastated the San Leon Volunteer Fire Department.

The firehouse on 12th Street was wrecked and one of the department’s pumper trucks was destroyed. For now, the fire department is working out of the front yard of Fire Chief Jeff Pittman’s home.

The department got a bit of good news, though. A community in Mississippi that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago is offering its assistance, including the donation of a fire truck that was donated to that town from the New York City Fire Department.

The MUD also faces some serious financial hardships, Manchaca said. The loss of residential units also means a loss of income to the district that supplies the water, sewer and streetlights for San Leon.

The San Leon MUD also provides the bulk of the funding for the fire department.

“We are looking at a severe loss of revenue and our ability to provide the services we do,” Manchaca said.

Despite the uncertain future, the MUD has instituted a no cutoff order for customers as they try to recover from Ike.

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To Help

Donations to San Leon relief fund can be made at Bacliff Lumber and Hardware, 607 Grand Ave., or online at www.sanleontexas.com.

To register elderly or disabled residents in need of help rebuilding or fixing up their homes, stop by Sullivan Pharmacy, 1140 Grand Ave., in Baclif