Center Point, Texas (Nexstar) – Nathan and Audrey Rich, a newly married couple, realized that they have come to know “adult”. They were hiring a house and a workshop on a property in Ker County. Audrey worked in a local bank across the road and Nathan dropped its diesel repair company from the workshop.
Then there was a flood of Independence Day.
Rich’s house, about 1,000 feet from River Bank, took three feet of water and mud, which destroyed the interior of his house, and damaged equipment and vehicles inside the Nathan workshop.
Both Audrey and Nathan, along with Audrey’s parents and brothers, were safely emptied into the hip-deep water. Audrey recalled the moment when he went back home to see the loss.
“We went in and it broke our hearts,” Audrey said through tears. Their wedding photos were thrown into the front yard. The couple was ruined a pool table in the garage with a significant value. Audrey said that he saw Nathan crying only for the second time that he was together.
Audrey explained, “Everyone did not mind in the day, and we were all houses at the center of the houses, so everyone came and moved out the pool,” Audrey explained.
The couple are now trying to re -start their business and find a new place to stay while paying their bills. It seemed that he was going to see some help from Austin The village. Greg Abbott called upon all MLAs to return to the capital building in a special session,
One of the 18 items on the agenda was “Relief Funding for Hill Country Flads”. However, those efforts have been stopped as Democrats and Republican Battle Redistribual 2026 beyond midnight. More than 50 Texas House Democrats fled from the state to prevent any vote from having any vote. A process that is known as braking quorum.
Looking for financial help
The couple have gone into a tourist located on a property of their friend and are taking a day a day. Nathan said that he applied for help through FEMA as soon as he restored his internet. An inspector with FEMA and her insurance company came out to see the damage.
Audrey stated that he was capable of receiving $ 10,600 from FEMA for his personal assets lost. However, they guess that the house and workshop had a loss of about $ 60,000.
Nathan began to apply for grants through local groups and county governments and was able to secure his business perfectly for $ 30,000 value. They are not sure that if he was not for his business, he would have received that money.
But the couple did not have the best fortune to get money for their stay. The Community Foundation of Hill Country first began to shake millions of dollars to different groups to help responders, schools, businesses and flood affected families.
The Foundation provided the Center Point Alliance for a progress of $ 200,000, allowing them to distribute funds to the families affected at the center point. Alliance treasurer Susan Walker said that 58 families applied for money.
“We have a committee that really went to her homes to verify that she was damaged,” the walker explained. Private donations were also gifted to the group which increased their funds by about $ 270,000.
Walker said that the alliance is paying money in two phases. The first phase cut the $ 2,500 probe for each family. For the rich, that money paid a month’s fare for the workshop.
Audrey said, “We don’t just have money to rebuild, buy a house, go somewhere.” “We need help to restart.”
Overall, Walker stated that their fund would be able to pay each family to pay $ 4,500 to $ 4,600 to about $ 4,600, but she understands that there are more requirements to help people.
“It would be good for our government to help, but we are going to try to ensure that they take care,” the walker said.
collateral damage
Residents of Ker County are waiting for money to come from the state, a political drama is causing collateral damage in Austin as a political drama. Texas Democrats vowed to stop the quorum until the first special session ends.
House president Dustin Baroz, R-Lubok, said that Friday would be the last chance for Democrats to return to the Texas House floor. If a quorum is not fulfilled, both the chamber sessions will end and Abbott has vowed to call another special session starting immediately from Friday.
Both sides have indicated fingers on each other when it comes to lack of legislative assistance for flood victims. Republican has regularly criticized Democrats for leaving the state. Abbott posted on his X account on Wednesday, “These representatives were selected to cast the votes that did not go away from their responsibilities.”
On the other hand, Texas Democrats has accused the Abbott and the Republican leadership of using floods, which is in the form of a map to get a new Congress map to appeal to President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, nine Senate Democrats went out of the Chamber, before it was considering and approved the controversial revival map that started quorum brakes.
“This is why we went out – because this session should be about flood relief, and we refuse to engage in a corrupt process.”
Some House Democrats have also argued that the Governor has the power to transfer funds within various state departments to help provide relief to the flood victims. State rape. Armando Walla, D-Houston, Written an opinion piece in Houston Chronicle Where he said, “The village Abbott has the power to do so efficiently, and unfairly without tying this tragedy into biased politics or political games.”
Shannon Halbrook, a fiscal policy analyst, a non -policy policy advocate, confirmed that the Governor has the power to transfer money to various state agencies during emergency. This is a process called budget execution.
“The governor has to make a proposal for the Legislative Budget Board, a state agency that is actually in charge of the budget made from members of the Legislature, and then they review it,” Halbrook explained.
It has been used in the past. Halbrook said that in the biennial of 2022-2023, some behavior for Uvalde victims had moved $ 415 million for health assistance, and then transferred to $ 1.3 billion Operation Loan Star,
But Halbrook said that the governor cannot execute this power when the legislature is in a regular or special session.
One day at a time
Dhan says that they are not very focused on what is happening in Austin. Nathan said, “I am getting more than sitting in this way and watching the news and getting mad in the Democrats or go crazy in the Republican or whatever happens.”
His business is running once again. He and his wife say that they are taking things one day in a day.
