Patricia Ortiz/Houston Public Media
Houston officials are urging residents to get flood insurance as hurricane season begins.
The city participated in unveiling a billboard campaign to spread awareness where 150 digital and traditional billboards will be sponsored by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) as a part of an awareness campaign.
“It’s heartbreaking when we have a homeowner who did not have flood insurance and does not have the funds to repair or to rebuild,” he said.
Jeffry Evans is the Meteorologist in Charge of the Houston/Galveston region at the National Weather Service and joined officials at the billboard unveiling. He said even tropical and thunderstorms can cause some streets to flood.
“I hear that all the time. ‘I didn’t flood in Harvey, so I should be good’. No, not necessarily. It also just takes one thing to float down a neighborhood and plug the drainage right in front of your house,” he said.
Evans added that because Houston is a flood-prone city, it’s more important for residents to get flood insurance.
“This is not a cost to cut,” he said. “… It takes 30 days before your application gets in till the flood insurance starts.”
“[Multi-Service centers] are now pretty much used year-round for either warming centers or cooling centers,” he said.
The most recent flooding events in Houston started near Kingwood when storms damaged hundreds of houses in Harris and Montgomery counties. Then a derecho hit that affected many areas from Cypress to Channelview. More than 20,000 CenterPoint customers were still without power a little over a week ago because of the derecho and other recent storms.
“This is going to be a very active hurricane season. It’s not the message I like to spread, but we’ve seen how warm and hot and humid we already are,” Jeffry Evans said.
