By Jessica Priest
More than a year after the Hurricane Ike devastated the coast of Texas, advocates of R.I.S.E. are still seraching for those victims who may have slipped through the cracks.
R.I.S.E., or Recovery for Ike Survivors Enterprise, is a disaster case management program, operated by Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response and created by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission with a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Agency to help Texas recover from Hurricane Ike.
Designed to provide help, support and advocacy to survivors of Hurricane Ike, R.I.S.E. serves 16 counties of southeast Texas via local agencies.
The counties R.I.S.E. serves include: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Hardin, Jefferson, Liberty, Madison, Matagorda, Montgomery, Orange, Walker, Waller or WAn estimated 100 people attended “A Cowboy Christmas” sponsored by the Ag Booster Association on Monday night at the Walker County Fairgrounds to raise funds for the Huntsville 4-H and FFA. The association’s goal was to raise $3,500 for the two groups’ scholarship funds through live and silent auctions. The evening started off with a chili dinner. One of the auction items — displayed by McKayla Currier, left, and Josie Tindall — brought $80. Behind them are association president Kay King and auctioneer Kevin McMillian.ashington.
In order to recieve aid from R.I.S.E. you must be a survivor of Hurricane Ike, live in one of the counties above mentioned, be a United States citizen or legal resident and not currently be recieving assistance from the Disaster Housing Assistance Program.
In May 2009, R.I.S.E. recieved $24.3 million from FEMA to hire case workers from local organizations. These case managers’ jobs are to work with surviors to assess disaster-related needs, develop long-term recovery plans, and connect survivors to the available resources offered to victims.
GMC Conslutants, LLC, is just one of the many local agencies working to provide relief to the victims of Hurricane Ike.
They were contracted by R.I.S.E. to provide assistance to more than 800 victims in the Montgomery, Walker and Brazoria counties.
“The IKE survivors still need total home replacements,” stressed GMC Consultants program director Desiree Wilson. “They need help with mold, they need roof replacements, they need rental and utility assistance...To date, a good majority of these folks still need help in one shape or form.”
According to Wilson, victims of Hurricane Ike are often skeptical about the help provided by her case workers and local agencies alike.
They often assume that because help was so late to arrive in the beginning that nothing has changed.
“The issue that we are seeing (right now) is that number one people don’t know the services out there and because it took so long for help to come, people are kind of skeptical.”
“You can imagine nine months after a storm and I’m knocking on your door saying that I got what you need - you are going to get a lot of raised eyebrows...We’ve had to combat that a lot,” Wilson said.
Currently, she and her team of consultants at GMC are working to provide documents to those victims eligible to recieve the Social Services Block Grant, or SSBG, distributed by the Houston Galveston Council.
Money recieved from SSBG will go towards minor home repairs as well as helping victims with utility and rental services and purchasing new furniture.
“Every case we have is difficult...even if it is just a tarp on a roof or if it’s from a tree that’s fallen on a trailer,” Wilson said. “These are all very difficult scenarios because people are not living in the condition that they lived before the storm.”
Victims of Hurricane Ike are urged to contact GMC Consultants, LLC at (936) 588-3051 to set up an appointment to discuss the disaster relief they might be eligible to recieve.
For more information about R.I.S.E. or the services they provide, please contact 1-888-IKE-RISE or visit www.texasrise.org.
