Boiling water was part of her new normal. She drove 20 miles a day to a friend’s house in Austin to fill 12 empty jugs with water from a hose and then lug them back to her home in Kyle. She boiled the water before using it to cook, clean and bathe.
Carrillo and her family woke up to a flooded kitchen on Valentine’s Day. The pipes beneath her mobile home had burst, as the winter storm blanketed Texas with snow and knocked out power to millions.
Weeks later, she was still without water, waiting for contractors to replace her plumbing. She wasn't sure when work would start.
“I recognize it’s not just me, it’s not just my block — it’s the whole state,” she said. “But we can’t live in these conditions.”
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As much of Austin moves on from the storm, many residents still are dealing with the fallout of the winter event. Some people, like Carrillo, have gone weeks without running water. Some face hefty repair costs. And for many of them, the situation is worsened due to the financial squeeze of going without work for a week.
More than 1,100 residents in Travis County have reported some type of storm damage to their homes to the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which set up an online survey to better assess damage across the state, according to the agency.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved nearly $36 million in assistance to about 11,400 Texans statewide as of March 1, FEMA spokesperson Alberto Pillot said. FEMA was not able to provide a breakdown of claims by county.
The Austin Disaster Relief Network, a group of 200 churches in the greater Austin area that is helping storm victims with financial and other relief, estimates 3,000 to 5,000 homes have busted pipes or other damage based on the number of calls for assistance the organization has received. About 500 people have put in a request for help with cleanup, debris removal or plumbing repairs, and the network continues providing water to dozens of families without running water.
Aid groups say there’s great need for assistance in the community but because the devastation isn’t as visible as that of a hurricane or flooding many might be suffering silently.
“You don’t really see it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there,” said Daniel Geraci, executive director of the Austin Disaster Relief Network.
No running water weeks later
On Feb. 27, Carrillo’s kitchen floor was still soggy and caving from the flooding.
Water seeped into the pantry, her bedroom and the closet. She had to pull out the carpet in her room, and parts of the walls were damaged, too.
Carrillo lives with her two teenage sons, adult daughter, son-in-law and 4-year-old granddaughter. They melted snow to keep the toilets running the first few days.
As the snow melted, a friend who lives in Austin offered to let her fill up water jugs at her house and helped connect her with a local group that provided the family with bottled water and food.
Carrillo filed a claim with her homeowners insurance. The claim for plumbing repairs was approved, but work is backlogged with few workers and materials available, she said. She has to pay a $200 deductible but expects insurance will cover the rest.
She wasn’t given a timeline of when work will start or be completed, but she hopes it’s soon.
It’s unclear how many people like Carrillo remain without water across the region.
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'A basic human necessity': Countless Austinites still without water weeks after winter storm
Officials with Austin Water and utilities in neighboring communities said they’ve restored water service to customers but burst pipes or other damage could cause prolonged outages.
Austin Water set up 12 stations at apartment complexes without running water across the city. The city had identified about 60 apartments and condos without water as of Feb. 27, Austin Water spokesperson Scott Sticker said.
The number of single-family homes with plumbing issues is harder to estimate, the utility said. It currently doesn't have a way of tracking whether water is being used at a specific meter.
Repair work underway
Austin Water is connecting customers with plumbing damage to nonprofit groups that can assist with repairs.
The utility partnered with the Austin Housing and Planning Department to help low-income and vulnerable customers with repairs through the city’s emergency home repair program. Austin Water pledged $1 million to the program, and a total of $1.1 million is available to help residents.
Eligible homeowners can apply for up to $10,000 to fix damage caused by the storm, including wall or floor removal, water, sewer or gas line repair, plumbing repairs and mold remediation. City staff will review the applications and connect residents with one of seven nonprofits the city has partnered with to carry out repairs.
About 110 people have applied for assistance in the first three days since the program launched Wednesday, department spokesperson Jorge Ortega said.
Work is already underway in many homes.
The city’s Development Services Department issued 39 permits as of Feb. 26 for storm-related repairs. The bulk — 21 of them — were related to plumbing repairs, nine mechanical permits were issued for heating and air conditioning repairs, and nine electrical permits were issued, spokesperson Robbie Searcy said.
The number of residents doing work probably is higher. Some smaller repairs don’t require permits, and the Austin City Council voted Feb. 25 to waive certain permit requirements to repair leaky pipes. Residents can also begin emergency repair work without first obtaining a permit, though they are required to get a permit retroactively.
Volunteers help clean, repair
The Austin Disaster Relief Network is working with Plumbers Without Borders to repair pipes and with other groups to provide financial assistance to help residents cover repairs and utility bills.
The network mobilized volunteers to help with cleanup and debris removal to allow crews to more easily access the damage. About 1,000 volunteers headed out to 100 homes in one weekend.
One of those homes was Marilyn Laverdure’s.
Not long after the power and heat went out in her South Austin home, Laverdure and her granddaughter heard a loud gushing sound.
“Water started coming through the vents in our downstairs ceiling like Niagara Falls,” she said.
Rooms throughout the house flooded, soaking the carpet. The water damaged the ceiling and insulation in the attic.
Laverdure, 83, and her 38-year-old granddaughter were without power for four days and without water for seven days.
They drove to several stores in search of water, but they were all out. Then they saw a vending machine outside a local Sam’s Club that had bottled water, got a stack of quarters and bought about eight bottles. Their teenage neighbor brought them a pack of water.
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“You don’t know how much you miss water until it’s not there,” Laverdure said.
Running water has since returned, but she doesn’t have hot water. She’s unsure if the plumbing issues damaged the heater or if there’s another problem. She called her insurance company to file a claim but hasn’t heard back. A local broker told her to go ahead and start repair work before mold started growing.
Laverdure saw a phone number flash across her screen encouraging people to call if they needed help with cleanup. It was the Austin Disaster Relief Network’s.
A group of about 12 volunteers showed up at her house Feb. 27, tore out the soggy carpet and cleaned up the home in about three hours.
“I called never expecting anything from it,” she said. “They came, and they were sent from heaven as far as I’m concerned."
Contractors came to cut out drywall from the ceiling and remove the baseboards. Fans are needed to dry out the wet walls, which could take up to five days, before repairs can start.
'We'll have to manage something'
As repair work starts, there’s a sense of relief for some families whose lives have been upended by the storm.
But now a new worry settles in — how much will the storm cost them?
Laverdure hasn’t heard back from her insurance company, so she’s not sure if her claim will be accepted. She hopes the company will pay for the bulk of repairs, but that still leaves her with a $2,500 deductible she’s not sure how she’ll pay.
“I don’t know how, but we’ll have to manage something,” she said, adding that she’s on a fixed income.
Dara Mariles wonders whether she’ll be on the hook for the water that came pouring through her wall after a pipe burst. She’s heard that people have been billed thousands of dollars after plumbing issues.
“I’m nervous about what my bills are going to look like,” she said. “I don’t know how many gallons of water came through the wall before I finally noticed and jumped out of bed.”
Mariles, who lives in Great Hills in Northwest Austin, woke up about 2 a.m. Feb. 16 to a strange noise. It was water gushing through the wall of her bedroom closet.
Two inches of water flooded the first floor of her house by the time she shut off the valve outside, she said.
She used a broom to sweep water out into the yard and the next morning put out a call on social media, asking her friends to help her call plumbers.
The first two companies couldn't make it up the hill to her home with the roads still icy and slick, she said. A third company made it about two days after the pipes burst to assess the damage.
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She melted snow for toilet water and had some bottled water to drink. A neighbor who was staying with relatives let her take a few gallons from their garage.
Remediation crews on Feb. 22 pulled out soaking carpet that smelled of mold after sitting in water for days, removed wood flooring, and cut out baseboards and about 2 inches of drywall throughout the first floor. Mariles moved all her belongings into the garage.
Crews set up several large fans so repairs could start once the house is dry, she said.
Mariles, her 14-year-old son and their two dogs are staying at a nearby AirBnb that she rented for two weeks. Construction was expected to take about a month, she said.
She filed a claim with her homeowners insurance that will cover the repairs after a $5,000 deductible. She doesn’t have an estimate of how much the damage and remediation will cost but she says she’s put about $50,000 worth of work into her home since she moved in five years ago, much of which was destroyed.
She’s not sure if the insurance company will give her a hard time to replace her upgraded floor or carpets. That could be an unexpected out-of-pocket expense she's not prepared to pay for.
How to get help
Homeowners with storm damage are encouraged to report damage and broken pipes to the state and federal government so that officials can better assess needs in the community.
People can report damage to the Texas Division of Emergency Management online or by calling 844-844-3089.
Residents can also apply for assistance through nonprofits, the city or FEMA.
FEMA assistance: Apply for help online or call 800-621-3363 or 800-462-7585 between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily. Funds can be used for emergency home repairs, uninsured or underinsured property losses, reimbursement for hotel stays for anyone who was displaced and other serious disaster-related expenses. Austin Emergency Home Repair Program: Homeowners can find more information about how to qualify and apply online. Residents can call 512-974-3100 or 311 or email the Housing Department for assistance. Residents can also find more information about permits, contractors and other assistance on the city’s website. Austin Disaster Relief Network: Residents can call the network's survivor hotline at 512-806-0800 for emergency financial assistance, emergency housing and help with home repairs or call the cleanup hotline at 800-329-8052 for debris removal, cleanup or plumbing repairs. Help is also available online at adrn.org.
Reach reporter Paulina Pineda at paulina.pineda@azcentral.com or 480-389-9637. Follow her on Twitter: @paulinapineda22.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: The winter storm has come and gone. But the struggle remains for many in Austin
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