Hurricane Dolly forcing evictions in Laguna Madre area

Most people living in the Laguna Madre area stayed home and rode out Hurricane Dolly. Now, three weeks later, some of the residents who braved the storm are searching for a place to live.

In Laguna Vista falling trees were responsible for most of the storm damage. Shingles blew off rooftops, fences blew down, and some low places experienced flooding.

The day after the storm the town's building inspector condemned eleven apartments in four different complexes, as well as a house on Orange Street. Three of the condemned apartments were in the Waters Edge Complex across from the fire hall.

Despite the difficulty of finding new shelter in the wake of Hurricane Dolly, residents of the affected dwellings managed to move within a few days. The David Helms family, who lived at Waters Edge Apartments, found a house in Brownsville to rent.

"It now takes me about 20 minutes to get to work on the Island," Helms said. "And the rent is higher. We're going to have to adjust our lives and hope we can make the rent payments." The extra gasoline required to travel to work will not help his situation, he said.

Laura Helms is a schoolteacher at Garriga Elementary in Port Isabel. The couple has a daughter, Angelita, still in school. A son, Christopher, graduated last spring and is still living at home, planning to enroll in Texas State Technical College in Harlingen.

Even with two paychecks in the family Helms, who moonlights as a tax preparer to pad income a little more, is worried about the future.

A couple of weeks after the storm, the remaining three dozen or so residents in Waters Edge found eviction notices taped to their doors. Because the storm had made the complex unsafe, the off-premises manager said, apartment units were "uninhabitable."

Steve Fox, a bartender, lives in a downstairs apartment in a two-story building in the complex. "Some windows blew out in the upstairs apartment, and we had water running down our walls from that," he said. "Our carpet got wet, but it's already dried out. Other than that, we had no damage."

Contending that the notices are illegal, Fox said he is staying put. Texas laws regarding landlords and tenants require eviction notices to be served by certified mail, and affirms that state law trumps lease clauses to the contrary.

"Anyway, where am I going to move?" he said. "There's no housing available."

The owner of record is H. Provino of Port Isabel, with a post office box number for an address. The name is not listed in the phone directory.

The off-premises manager, Milla Walker, lives on South Padre Island. Walker was on the parking lot surveying the damages just days after the storm. She said this was all over her head, and she was going to have her attorney handle it.

The day after the notices were taped to the doors a contractor from Fort Worth, Darcy Boatman, met an insurance adjuster on the premises. Boatman, who said he is also a licensed adjuster, figured the damage to the complex "at least a million dollars."

Resident manager Nancy Mata is in the same situation as the other tenants. Her apartment was condemned by Laguna Vista the day after the storm. She moved into another apartment in the complex, and now must move again.

"I don't know where we're going," she said. "It looks like Los Fresnos or Brownsville. Nothing in the Laguna Madre area is affordable."

An avenue of hope still exists for affected tenants. The Federal Emergency Management Administration has offered help for those who qualify. The phone number is 1-800-FEMA, and applications for assistance can be made online at www.FEMA.gov

There is no guarantee that housing will be provided in the immediate area, however.