Two years later....
City, county count blessings after Rita recovery effort
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Monday was another milestone in the post-Rita recovery, two years since that category 5 hurricane tore through East Texas.

In any other year, Rita would have hogged the spotlight, but following Katrina's debut in New Orleans, Rita and Wilma were the ugly stepsisters. (Wilma who? Wilma was the other category 5 storm of 2005 that displaced Rita as the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever and affected more than six million people in Florida.)

Real estate agent Wayne Stephenson said while some people are still crawling out from under the debris, figuratively speaking, two years later he is finally seeing progress.

"People spent months waiting for their insurance settlements, and then when they got it they had to contend with the labor market and scalpers. You had to wait months to get a reputable builder and then materials were in short supply," Stephenson said.

"Most of the impact of Rita is history now," Stephenson said, "But we'll never forget it. It sure makes you appreciate the simple things like a glass of cold water, a cool house and a hot meal."

State Farm insurance agent Brent Meaux echoes Stephenson's optimism on the second anniversary.

"Most disasters leave communities with two choices- to remain the same or to move forward and improve the infrastructure. Rita has allowed our city, county and residents the opportunity to set us apart."

At Jasper Independent School District, Ronnie Bryan, director of maintenance, reports, "everything is back to normal as far as repairs to buildings and grounds are concerned."

JISD Junior High Principal Mervin Cleveland said, "The students appear to have put the devastation of Hurricane Rita behind them and adjusted well."

In rural areas many people will never see, Boy Scout committee chair Lloyd Persons travels five East Texas counties as part of his GPS survey work.

"After Rita, I saw the further south you go, the worse it got, but even when you go north or toward Tyler County, you see rings of destruction, I guess from tornadoes. You'd go through a band of destruction, and then it would look pretty good and you'd think you were out of it, until you hit another band with more destruction," Persons said.

"Most areas are cleaned up now, but I think in some of the weekend homes, people may have just walked away. You still see trees through houses in some places.

"What else you see is areas that were heavily wooded, the downed trees have opened up the canopy and the underbrush is growing fast and old logging trails and roads are just disappearing altogether," Persons said.

Jasper County extension agent Ricky Thompson agrees, "The continual loss from Rita is the trees. Strong winds shook and broke off roots... this is a slow death for many of the large trees and they will continue to die off for no apparent reason."

Downed trees and storm debris was also implicated in the October and December flooding of 2006.

Jasper County has applied for $1.8 million in a federal matching grant program to aid in cleanup that may help solve those problems.

Jasper has already received almost $2 million in federal reimbursement funds, one of the very few counties to have worked their way through the sred tape to do so.

County auditor Dru Miller said, "Thankfully after the ORCA grant we received, we have recovered back to where we were. We ended 2005 with an unhealthy fund balance, but thanks to the diligence of the court and help from Congressman Kevin Brady, we ended 2006 with a healthy fund balance."

The Houston Chronicle headlined their Sunday edition, Sept. 23, with a story that says, "The state has spent less than one percent of the federal money allotted to fix or replace thousands of ruined homes."

Walter Diggles, executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG), attributed it to "an overabundance of caution to prevent fraud and abuse," according to the Chronicle.

Diggles told The Jasper Newsboy, "Most of our resources have come from the people of Saudi Arabia, volunteers from the Mennonite Disaster Services, Church World Services, Nehemiah's Vision, Older American Act (OAA), as well as other church and social service volunteers."

To date, Diggles said DETCOG has provided more than $1 million in assistance to more than 280 families in Jasper County alone, prioritizing senior citizens, the handicapped and special needs populations.

Jasper County only recently ordered five modular homes from McDonald's, part of the TDHCA (Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs) housing grant program.

Michael Gerber, TDHCA executive director, told East Texas officials, "These dollars are federal dollars with lots of strings attached."

Michael Hunter, grant writer, and the Jasper Commissioners' Court have worked for more than a year to untangle the strings, and there are still more hurdles to clear before the homes are installed the county reimbursed for these five homes.

Meanwhile, faith-based groups have taken the most direct approach. The Jasper Church of Christ and the Disaster Relief Effort supplied food, mattresses and appliances, no strings attached.

For two years, Mennonites have spent winters in Newton to do home repairs and replace roofs, no strings attached.

Two years after the storm, people have recovered to the point that the Beaumont Enterprise's pictorial account, Rita Captured, was a hit at the Business Expo.

People can finally look back with relief, and see hope ahead.