GALVESTON — Almost a month after Hurricane Ike’s floodwaters inundated thousands of Galveston buildings, most property owners still don’t know whether they’ll be allowed to rebuild.
At the city’s temporary building permit office, people who stood in long lines hoping to get permission to start repairs are going away empty-handed.
Daily uncertainty is the only thing some island residents have left.
“I’m living in limbo right now, and no one can get any answers,” homeowner Julia Hatcher told the city council last week.
City officials met on Tuesday with the Federal Emergency Management Agency teams that will help determine which properties can be rebuilt and which must be demolished.
Until the assessments are complete, the city’s planning department will withhold most building permits for properties with moderate water damage.
The hold is designed to prevent owners from spending money to repair property that may eventually have to be demolished, said Wendy O’Donohoe, planning director.
But it’s also slowing recovery efforts and angering residents who are trying to put their lives back together.
Dispelling Rumors
As frustrations mount, rumors are running rampant about the meaning of the red and yellow stickers city crews put on houses after their own damage assessments.
Rumors that the stickers mean city and FEMA have decided which houses or neighborhoods must be demolished are false, O’Donohoe said.
Rumors that the city will buy out large areas and prevent rebuilding are also false, she said.
Property owners approached by anyone claiming to know what the city plans to do with their house should report it to the police, she said.
Yellow And Red Tags
City officials estimate about 75 percent of the island’s houses had some flood damage.
City inspectors placed red stickers on houses that had obvious structural damage and will most likely have to be demolished.
But most of the properties, tagged with yellow stickers, received moderate damage and need more detailed inspections to determine whether the repair costs total more than 50 percent of the structure’s value.
If they do, the houses are substantially damaged and might have to be demolished.
But the city has not decided which houses have more than 50 percent damage, O’Donohoe said.
Federal assessment teams, which began work this week, will help the city make that determination, although local officials have the final say.
If the necessary repairs cost more than half the property’s value, owners must bring their structures into compliance with the city’s current codes, which include base flood elevation requirements, O’Donohoe said.
Living areas will generally have to be rebuilt one story off the ground, but the exact height varies in different parts of town. If existing structures can be elevated, property owners will not have to demolish them.
Only properties eligible for or already listed on the National Register of Historic Places are exempted from floodplain regulations, O’Donohoe said.
Floodproofing Downtown
Commercial properties will be evaluated under the same criteria as residential structures, but owners also will have the option of floodproofing buildings that cannot be elevated.
Some downtown business owners fear the modifications to their buildings will be too expensive for their landlords.
“Building owners won’t pay to do this kind of stuff,” said Danny Hart, a principle of Galveston Restaurant Group.
“And if we can’t get flood insurance, we don’t want to go back into business. I hope we see some relief.”
Although she didn’t have details of what it takes to floodproof a building, O’Donohoe said it involved modifications to the windows and doors to keep water out.
But the majority of downtown buildings will be exempted from those requirements because of their historic nature, O’Donohoe said.
Some buildings that have been altered won’t necessarily be historic on their own merits, she said.
But the Texas Historical Commission, which makes the determination about eligibility for the national register, will consider historic events that occurred on the property or people who resided in the structure at one time, O’Donohoe said.
“We are working with them to provide information about the properties and do whatever we can do to give them historic significance,” she said.
A Waiting Game
Late Tuesday, the city started issuing electrical permits for water-damaged houses.
The permits will allow property owners to have their power turned back on, but most still must wait before they can begin to make other repairs.
Some property owners who had damage can begin repairs, but only if their structure is already located at or above the base flood elevation or is in flood zone X.
Although federal teams have started their assessment process, city officials do not know how long it will take to review every house on the island, O’Donohoe said.
But property owners will not have to wait until the entire process is finished to find out about their houses, she said.
The city plans to begin notifying property owners about their structure’s status as soon as officials make an individual determination, she said.
Setting Values
During today’s city council meeting, O’Donohoe will propose using the value set by the Galveston Central Appraisal District plus 5 percent of the structure’s value in the formulas that will help determine substantial damage.
Appraisal district values are generally lower than market value, which could force some property owners to demolish or elevate structures that could be repaired at less than half their market value.
But the modified appraisal district value is only a baseline, O’Donohoe said.
The planning department will also accept private appraisals and will consider bids submitted by a registered contractor to help establish the cost of repairs, she said.
The private appraisals likely will set the value higher than the baseline, and the reconstruction bids could show the repair costs to be less than city inspectors anticipated.
But property owners tempted to use the negotiating room to fraudulently obtain permission to rebuild should think about the long-term consequences, O’Donohoe said.
If FEMA can prove fraud, property owners might not be able to get flood insurance in the future, she said.
City building officials also are trained to detect false information on building permit requests, she said.
