A Family Comes Home
It was the early 1950’s and a family walked in to their new home at 2424 Stonewall Street. The children came in and ran to their bedrooms so excited about their beautiful new home. That home stood strong for many year. It took on quite a bit of damage when Ike rolled through but Mrs. Nettie King, with her own resources and the support of her neighborhood, rebuilt.
But then came Harvey, and this well oved home that had seen so much history was swept away and what little that was left could not be salvaged. Here is a picture of the home in July of 2013 and as it looks today thanks to DSW homes, Galveston County Recovers, Texas General Land Office and so many others.
The simple truth is we are probably looking at another decade of rebuilding before Galveston County is fully restored. The process of getting to the point where all the papers are signed, the materials assembled, the volunteers gathered and the funding received is a tedious but necessary process. The remarkable part of this story is that DSW started this project somewhere around the first week of March. What they accomplished is that short amount of time is the difference between yesterday and today. As Steve Matero said when he came to the mic to welcome Mrs. King to her newly restored home, “Yesterday was overcast and rainy but as soon as you pulled up Ms. Nettie, the sun came out and we have a beautiful day in which to celebrate.”
Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office George Prescott Bush was on hand to congratulate the King family and welcome them home. He also took the time to speak a little about the Homeowners Assistance Program that was used to get Ms Nettie back into her home saying, “This program is ongoing and there are still funds available.” Applications are available online at: http://recovery.texas.gov/ and Bush strongly encouraged those still seeking help to apply.
As she waved the keys to her new home in the air, Executive Director of Galveston County Recovers looked on emotioally as yet one more of the over 5000 cases GCR has completed came to another happy ending.
