Houston officials urge residents to buy flood insurance as hurricane season begins – Houston Public Media

Houston officials are urging residents to purchase flood insurance as hurricane season begins.

The city participated in the unveiling of a billboard campaign to raise awareness, where 150 digital and traditional billboards will be sponsored by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) as part of an awareness campaign .

HAR President Thomas Mouton said many homeowners lost their homes during Hurricane Harvey and had no way to get money back.

“It’s heartbreaking to have a homeowner who doesn’t have flood insurance and doesn’t have the funds to repair or 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 added that even tropical storms and thunderstorms can cause flooding on some streets.

“I hear this all the time. ‘I didn’t flood Harvey, so I should be fine.’ No, not necessarily. It also takes one thing to float into a neighborhood and clog the drainage right in front of your house,” did he declare.

Evans added that because Houston is a flood-prone city, it is more important for residents to carry flood insurance.

“It’s not a cost to cut,” he said. “…It takes 30 days from your application to be received until flood insurance begins.”

Hurricane season began June 1 in the Houston area and will continue through November. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the city is in the process of providing generators to multi-utility centers in case of an emergency.

“(Multi-service centers) are now used year-round for warming centers or cooling centers,” he said.

Houston’s most recent flooding began near Kingwood when storms damaged hundreds of homes in Harris and Montgomery counties. Then a derecho affected many areas, from Cypress to Channelview. Just over a week ago, more than 20,000 CenterPoint customers were still without power due to the derecho and other recent storms.

“Hurricane season is going to be very active. It’s not the message I like to put out there, but we’ve seen how hot and humid we already are,” Jeffry Evans said.