FEMA denied or did not advance most of Kerr County’s requests for assistance after the deadly July 4 floods.
So far, only about a fifth of federal disaster aid applicants in Kerr County, Texas, have been deemed eligible for financial assistance, leaving hundreds without government assistance more than three months after the deadly floods that ravaged the county on July 4.
As of Oct. 11, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had referred only 46% of Kerr County’s applications for its Individuals and Households program to the next stage, where they are evaluated to receive money, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of federal data.
This means that 1,749 applications out of 3,228 have still not been reviewed beyond the initial phase.
And of those in Kerr County that officials reviewed for specific funding, FEMA found only 704 eligible applications, or about 22 percent. The agency turned down 775, largely because people didn’t respond or withdrew their applications.
For comparison, Sarah Labowitz, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, found that after 170 disasters occurred between 2015 and May 2024, FEMA found that 39% of applicants for individual and household assistance were eligible.
The low proportions of referrals and approvals contrast with nine other Central Texas counties that experienced significant flood damage over the holiday weekend. Other counties had fewer applicants and reported less damage, and received a higher proportion of FEMA approvals. The agency has approved $37 million so far.
That disparity has advocates wondering about what’s happening in Kerr County, where most of the flood deaths occurred when the Guadalupe River surged early on the morning 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 overhaul” of FEMA, which President Donald Trump has threatened to eliminate.
After a disaster, FEMA money is intended to help cover hotel or rent costs, repairing homes to make them habitable, 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 advocacy and policy group Texas Appleseed, who has also been tracking the approvals.
“If you’ve 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, the computer and books your child needs to get back to school,” Sloan said.
In Kerr County, nonprofits are helping to fill the gaps. The First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville distributed $250,000 it received in private donations to repair roofs, replace vehicles or cover rent, among other things. He received an additional $557,500 from the Texas Hill Country Community Foundation, which raised a whopping $100 million to help the region recover.
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Bailey Havis, a case manager at the church, has heard heartbreaking stories from flood victims as she helps them: a mother who survived by clinging to what she called “the tree of life”; people whose family reunion was at River Inn, one of the first places hit by flooding; a travel nurse staying in a trailer whose husband invited his parents to stay nearby for the Fourth of July holiday. His parents are dead. They also lost the caravan.
“These are our people and we want them to make a full recovery – which will take many years – but to make a physical recovery as quickly as possible,” Havis said.
The foundation now covers the salary of Havis, a Kerrville native who grew up attending church. She’s a trained pediatric nurse who the church hired shortly after the floods to help people access resources. She said the foundation could help them without forcing them to wade through a mountain of paperwork.
Even people who received FEMA aid felt some disappointment in what they received relative to their needs, said the church’s pastor, Jasiel Hernandez Garcia.
For some, he said, “It’s really minimal.”
Most refusals are due to non-response or voluntary withdrawal
Why FEMA is not returning Kerr County applications for evaluation is not revealed in the data, but they have some commonalities.
They are mostly over 50 and apply largely online, rather than through a call center, according to the Tribune’s analysis. Most of them reported damage in Kerrville.
For those who have been denied assistance by FEMA, the primary reason is lack of response 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 they may not be comfortable using online forms. They may not be emotionally prepared to gather all the necessary information.
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Without federal aid, people might leave the area because they don’t have the means to make it livable again, said Brittanny Perrigue Gomez, an attorney and disaster benefits team manager at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Lack of money to repair the house can also lead to other problems if people fall behind on other bills to pay.
“Individuals need to be able to begin to recover financially, and the first way to do that is to return to a safe place to live,” Gomez said.
The organization is currently working on more than 140 cases from Kerr and surrounding counties, many of which need assistance with FEMA applications. Common problems include people not having clear titles to their manufactured homes or RVs, or to homes they have inherited informally. Others told the group they felt they weren’t getting enough money to make their homes safer, Gomez said.
FEMA no longer sends people going door to door to tell flood victims how to register for help and answer questions about what it takes to apply, Sloan said. It is also unclear whether those who are denied access understand why or whether they can appeal FEMA’s decision. And FEMA now requires an email address for people to apply – something not everyone has.
“It’s yet another burden for someone who just went through one of the worst days of their life,” Sloan said.
Nonprofits took action
Austin Dickson, executive director of the community foundation, was hosting his family at his Kerrville-area home for the July 4 holiday. The night before the storm, they played board games and stayed up late. By the time Dickson woke up, had a cup of coffee and looked at his phone, he saw numerous text messages and alerts. He began to realize that something bad had happened.
Staff at the Texas Hill Country Community Foundation knew, having helped 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 going to happen,” Dickson said.
The fund took off when the scale of the devastation became clear, Dickson said. More than 100 people died in Kerr County, including generations of families vacationing by the river and 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic.
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The foundation worked carefully and quickly; In late July, it distributed $11.9 million to local nonprofits to provide cash assistance to victims and small businesses and to help volunteer firefighters and shelters. Families received an average of $5,000 in those first weeks.
“The aid got where it needed to go,” Dickson said, adding: “The [financial aid] Government resources are not operational in the first and second week, and therefore it is necessary, in these first days, where there are resources, for philanthropy to intervene early. That’s what we chose to do, and I think it was the right decision.
Next, the foundation supported various long-term housing, mental health and community resources. It has distributed money to help repair homes, replace RVs used as primary residences, pay rent for temporary housing and fund 28 case managers who will be hired by various nonprofit organizations. These case managers would aim to work with the 673 flood victims who have registered with the foundation for assistance.
“Every dollar counts,” said Michelle Meyer, an associate professor at Texas A&M and director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. “The people who typically end up in the nonprofit system are usually people who are uninsured, who are underinsured. They may have people in their home who are disabled. [folks] quite often they end up in the non-profit recovery space. You need every dollar to try to get people back.
Airbnb.org, a nonprofit founded by Airbnb five years ago, has provided emergency housing to several hundred first responders and people whose homes were flooded. The foundation gave the group $1.6 million to build housing for up to a year for 60 individuals or families whose homes were damaged by flooding, particularly those whose finances are tight.
“These are the people that we really want to make sure don’t fall through the cracks,” said Christoph Gorder, executive director of the nonprofit.
Disclosure: Texas Appleseed has financially supported The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization funded in part by donations from its members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial support plays no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list here.
