Only about one-fifth of applicants for federal disaster assistance from Kerr County have been deemed eligible to get financial help so far, leaving hundreds without governmental aid more than three months after deadly floods ravaged the county on July 4.
As of Oct. 11, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had referred only 46% of Kerr County applications for its Individuals and Households Program to the next stage, where they are evaluated to receive money, a Texas Tribune analysis of federal data shows.
That means 1,749 applications out of 3,228 still hadn’t been reviewed past the initial stage.
And among those from Kerr County that officials did review for specific funding, FEMA found only 704 applications eligible — or about 22%. The agency denied 775, largely because people weren’t responding or were withdrawing their applications.
By comparison, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace researcher Sarah Labowitz found that following 170 disasters from 2015 through May 2024, FEMA found 39% of applicants for individual and household aid were eligible.
The low proportions of referrals and approvals stand in contrast to nine other Central Texas counties that saw significant flood damage around the holiday weekend. The other counties had fewer applicants and reported less extensive damage, and have received a higher proportion of approvals from FEMA. The agency has approved $37 million so far.
The disparity has advocates questioning what’s going on in Kerr County, where most of the flood deaths occurred when the Guadalupe River surged up in the early morning hours of July 4.
FEMA did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The agency is not fully operational during the federal government shutdown; the White House earlier this year called for “a full-scale review” of FEMA, which President Donald Trump has threatened to eliminate.
After a disaster, FEMA money is meant to help cover costs for hotels or rent, fixing homes to make them liveable and medical and transportation needs. Without it, people lose an important resource, especially if they don’t have insurance, savings or credit, said Maddie Sloan, director of the Disaster Recovery and Fair Housing Project with the nonprofit policy and advocacy group Texas Appleseed, which has also been tracking the approvals.
“If you have lost everything and you don’t have access to other resources, this is where you can get help with housing, where you can get help with the car you need to get to work, with the computer and books your kid needs to go back to school,” Sloan said.
In Kerr County, nonprofits are helping to fill the gaps. First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville has given out $250,000 that it received in private donations for repairing rooftops, replacing vehicles or covering rent, among other things. It got an additional $557,500 from the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which raised a whopping $100 million and counting to help the area recover.
Bailey Havis, a case manager at the church, has heard agonizing stories from flood victims as she helps them: A mom who survived by clinging to what she called "the tree of life;" people whose family reunion happened to be at the River Inn, among the first places hit by the flooding; a travel nurse staying in a travel trailer whose husband invited his parents to stay nearby for the July 4 holiday. His parents died. They also lost the trailer.
“These are our people and we want to get them to full recovery — which is many years down the road — but physical recovery as soon as possible,” Havis said.
The foundation is now covering the salary for Havis, a Kerrville native who grew up going to the church. She’s a pediatric nurse by training whom the church hired soon after the flooding to help connect people with resources. She said the foundation could help without requiring them to wade through a mountain of paperwork.
Even people who have received FEMA aid have felt some disappointment at what they received compared to their need, said the church’s pastor, Jasiel Hernandez Garcia.
For some, he said, “It’s really minimal.”
Most denials because of non-response or voluntary withdrawal
Why FEMA isn’t referring Kerr County applications for evaluation is not revealed in the data, but they have some commonalities.
They are predominantly over 50 and largely applying online, as opposed to through a call center, the Tribune’s analysis found. Most of them reported damage in Kerrville.
For those who have been denied aid by FEMA, the top reason is failing to respond to the agency or voluntary withdrawal.
Advocates say cell service in the area is spotty and not everyone has easy access to the internet and computers to communicate with FEMA. People may not even have a phone after the disaster or may not be comfortable navigating online forms. They may not be emotionally prepared to gather all the necessary information.
Without federal assistance, people may leave the area because they can’t afford to make it liveable again, said Brittanny Perrigue Gomez, an attorney and disaster benefits team manager with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Being short on money for home repair can also snowball into other problems if people get behind on other bills to pay.
“Individuals need to be able to start to financially recover, and the first way you do that is by getting yourself back into a safe place to live,” Gomez said.
The organization is now working on more than 140 cases from Kerr and the surrounding counties, many of them needing help with FEMA applications. Common issues include people lacking clear titles to their manufactured homes or RVs, or homes they informally inherited. Others have told the group they feel they aren’t getting enough money to make their homes safe to live in, Gomez said.
FEMA no longer sends people knocking door-to-door to tell flood victims how they can sign up for help and answer questions on what is needed to apply, Sloan said. It’s also not clear if those who are denied understand why, or that they can appeal FEMA’s decision. And FEMA now requires an email address for people to apply — which not everyone has.
“It’s yet another burden on somebody who has just been through one of the worst days of their life,” Sloan said.
Nonprofits jumped to action
Austin Dickson, the community foundation’s chief executive officer, had been hosting family at his home in the Kerrville area for the July 4 holiday. The night before the storm, they played board games and went to sleep late. By the time Dickson woke up, had a cup of coffee and looked at his phone, he saw lots of texts and alerts. He started to realize something bad had happened.
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country staff knew from helping after past disasters that philanthropy could play an important role. They created a relief fund at 9:48 a.m. on July 4.
“We had no idea what was to come,” Dickson said.
The fund took off as the scope of the devastation became clear, Dickson said. More than 100 people died in Kerr County, including generations of families spending the holiday by the river and 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic.
The foundation worked with attention and speed; it doled out $11.9 million by the end of July to local nonprofits to provide cash assistance to victims and small businesses and to help volunteer fire departments and shelters. Families on average got $5,000 in those first weeks.
“Help got where it needed to go,” Dickson said, adding, “The (financial aid) resources of government are not in operation in week one and week two, and so there is a need in those early days, where there’s resources, for philanthropy to step in early. That was what we chose to do, and I think it was the right call.”
Next the foundation supported various long-term housing, mental health and community resources. It gave out money to help repair homes, replace RVs used as primary residences, pay rent for temporary housing and fund 28 case managers to be hired by various nonprofits. Those case managers would aim to work with the 673 flood victims who signed up with the foundation to get help.
“Every dollar matters,” said Michelle Meyer, an associate professor at Texas A&M and director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. “The folks that usually end up in the nonprofit system are usually folks who are uninsured, underinsured. They might have folks in their house with disabilities. Elderly (folks) a lot of times end up in the nonprofit recovery space. You need every dollar to try to get folks back.”
Airbnb.org, a nonprofit that Airbnb founded five years ago, provided emergency housing for several hundred first responders and people with flooded homes. The foundation gave the group $1.6 million to set up housing for up to a year for 60 people or families with flood-damaged homes, especially those with tight finances.
“It’s those people who really we want to make sure that they don’t fall through the cracks,” said Christoph Gorder, the nonprofit’s executive director.
Disclosure: Texas Appleseed has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
