GLO builds new home for Monte Alto woman affected by 2019 storm

MONTE ALTO — A woman here walked into her new house Wednesday morning with a sense of gratitude and disbelief.

“I’m honestly speechless. I’m super excited,” Alejandra Alanis, said as she took in her brand new living and dining rooms.

The wife and mother of three took a moment to take a tour of the home, with its three bedrooms and two baths.

Outside, the siding is painted a dusky blue, while the front door is navy — the colors of the sky and clouds just after a storm passes — an appropriate homage to the disaster Alanis and her family have survived.

The front door opens onto a small foyer that divides the home in half. On one side, an open-concept living and dining room. On the other, a hallway that leads to the two bedrooms where Alanis’ children will sleep.

Just past the dining room, a door on the left opens onto the master bedroom suite, while morning sunshine streamed through a window in the kitchen on the right.

The house has yet to be furnished, but Alanis said she was excited to have a place to once again call home.

“We had to leave our home, but finally, we’re gonna have a home. … We can finally be together as a family again,” she said.

Alanis’ rural Monte Alto home was destroyed by a powerful storm that blew through the Delta and Mid-Valley in late June 2019.

The storm, which generated gale-force winds right in the heart of the farming community, came nearly a year to the day after another so-called 500-year storm wreaked similar havoc through the same region.

Both weather events caused widespread flooding and damaged dozens of homes. But it was precisely because of the scale of damage that Alanis was able to walk into a home that had been rebuilt from the ground up.

The two storms caused such large-scale economic damage that affected areas within the Rio Grande Valley qualified for federal disaster relief dollars. Alanis’ home in particular was rebuilt using funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“This house is part of the HARP program,” said Elijah Casas, a community outreach coordinator with the Texas General Land Office, which is overseeing the disbursement of federal disaster relief monies.

“This program is to help families who are still living with damaged homes. We can help with reconstruction, repairs… but also, we understand that some families have already fixed the damage. Part of this program allows for up to $50,000 in reimbursement for out-of-pocket repair costs,” Casas added.

The GLO allocated more than $137 million for disaster recovery funds related to damage caused by the 2018 and 2019 storms, Casas said. And a significant portion of that money still remains, but the clock on their availability is ticking down.

Casas urged residents from Hidalgo, Cameron or Willacy counties who were affected by either storm to reach out to the GLO and begin an application before the end of the summer.

Residents can start an application by logging on to Recovery.Texas.gov/HARP, by calling (512) 992-0634, or by setting up an appointment with GLO officials at their Weslaco office, Casas said. Help is available in both English and Spanish.

The damage to Alanis’ home qualified her for a full reconstruction, which covered the costs to tear down the previous structure and construct a new one.

Other residents may qualify for help to elevate their homes above flood level, reinforcing their homes to make them more resilient to storms, temporary relocation assistance, and more.

But funds are also available for those who took the repairs upon themselves.

Those residents may qualify for up to $50,000 in reimbursement — funds that can be used to pay for completed repairs or to repay federally-backed loans administered by the Small Business Administration, Casas said.

As Alanis stood in awe inside her new home, she encouraged others to apply.

“Don’t give up. Keep on applying so that they can help you, too. Because there are places where you can get help, you just have to look. Don’t give up,” she said.

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