Erath residents seek answers about flooding in housing authority neighborhood

ERATH — Residents who live in the Erath Housing Authority were looking for answers about the hold-up in elevating their houses.
It is known that the streets of North Lahasky and Dronet Street, north of the bypass, flood when there is a five to six-inch rain or a storm surge. A lot of rain means the streets flood, and the residents are trapped because there is only one way in and one way out of the Housing Authority.
There are around 100 people (26 families) who live in the housing authority.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that Erath would receive $2.2 million to elevate the 13 homes in the housing authority. Elevating the homes at least five to eight feet high would solve the houses from flooding; however, it would not solve the streets from flooding, stated Erath Mayor Taylor Mencacci.
Mencacci explained to the residents that elevating the houses would not solve the flooding problem. He said the residents would still get trapped inside their homes when a six-inch rain occurs. He also added that the town does not have the money to elevate the roads.
And, FEMA’s money would not pay to elevate the roads. Mencacci also said each lifted home would have to be made handicap accessible, and the $2.2 million would not be enough to pay to raise the homes and make each home handicap accessible.
Mencacci’s solution to the flooding issue would be to move the housing authority to higher grounds in Erath, away from the bowl it now sits in.
Lynette Hebert, a resident in the housing authority, explained to the Mayor and aldermen that the people living in the housing authority do not have the funds to evacuate to a hotel each time there is a threat of rain or a tropical storm.
“Everyone feels like they are sitting ducks and no way to get out,” said Hebert. “For heavy rains, we can not get out.”
One by one, the residents said they are fed up with the street flooding and were looking for answers. There was even talk about building a new road north of the housing authority that would give the residents another way in and out.
“We have nowhere to go,” said a resident. “There are disabled people who live here and have nowhere to go. We want to know what we can do. Everyone is fed up with this for years and years.”