MICHAEL
Inside Today: Karbachtoberfest takes the stage this weekend • Page 1B
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Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston
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Saturday, September 16, 2017 • Vol. 62 • No. 38
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Storage flooding just adds to the difficulties Neumann arrived on site to submit her monthly rental payment, but found the skeletal remains of basically every unit on the site cleaned out, displaced as another casualty of Hurricane Harvey. Per the Texas Self Storage Association’s (TSSA) Gold Book, companies are required to give tenants timely notice of disaster occurrences such as units flooding, increase security and take various other measures to ensure property protection. But according to Neumann, some of that did not occur.
By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com When Kiki Neumann pulled up to American Mini Storage on West 34th Street last week, she was alarmed and confused by what she found and what followed the discovery. “I went in on Sept. 5, and I saw piles of carnage everywhere, open security gates, obvious people who were not tenants going through piles of stuff, and no security or anyone to tell me what to do,” she said.
“My things were in a hot storage unit for six days, and when I went in, I found things still under about nine inches of water,” she said. “Everyone in there has lost the bottom six inches to three feet of stuff with no real organizational skills in telling us what to do. If I hadn’t gone down there myself, I still would not have known that it flooded.” While disaster occurrences are unavoidable, Neumann said it was how the employees treated the See Storage P. 7A
Photo by Landan Kuhlmann Residents were left in shock with a self-storage facilites lack of communication and organization in the aftermath.
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Photo by Landan Kuhlmann Shepherd Park Resident since 2008
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inside.
Get a Taste of Texas. Eight Row Flint’s - Tuesday Night cooking series kicks off Sept. 12 and 19
Page 1B
Find it.
ST. ANNE DE BEAUPRE CATHOLIC CHURCH INSIDE GARAGE SALE: 2810 Link Rd. Friday, Sept. 15 and Sept. 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Also hosting a fish fry benefiting St. Vincent de Paul Society from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Plates are $10 each.
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The INDEX. Church....................................................... 5A Classifieds.............................................. 4B Coupons. ................................................. 6A Food/Drink/Art................................... 1B Obituaries.............................................. 6A Opinion. ................................................... 4A Public Information......................... 2A Puzzles...................................................... 4A
Project GIFT® efforts and volunters provided residents of Greater Inwood welcomed relief in the aftermath of the storm.
The program from Georgia-based Southwire has provided disaster relief to affected citizens around the country since 2005.
Country-wide helping hands aid Houston relief By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com Hurricane Harvey may be over, but its after-effects still linger, and volunteers from around the nation are doing their best to ensure impacted communities are not forgotten simply because the storm has blown out. Last Friday, under the umbrella of Southwire’s Project GIFT® (a project initially founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with “Christmas On The Coast” in Waveland, Miss.), dozens of Southwire and Sumner Manufacturing volunteers pounded the pavement
door to door near Greater Inwood, providing supplies to those citizens affectedby Hurricane Harvey. “[Since 2005], natural disaster relief has been really close to our hearts,” said Mandy Baeumel, Southwire director of employee development, noting relief efforts have multiplied tenfold since their humble beginnings. “Any kind of significant natural disaster that causes grief in any part of the United States, we try to jump in and give a relief effort. Disaster relief goes back to our core — it was what got us started.” But Friday’s efforts also hit closer to home. Southwire is based in Carrollton, Ga. and has 35 offices in
total, but acquired Houston-area Sumner Manufacturing about eight months ago as a company extension and had numerous employees experience personal devastation from Harvey and its aftermath. “That was even more reason for us to pitch in and do something,” Baeumel said. Baeumel said Southwire contacted a local community church as soon as they came in from Georgia, as is standard procedure for these efforts, as a partner in their efforts before making any move. With its base of operations set, the company See Inwood Relief P. 7A
The Leader’s 5th annual Senior Expo, presented by Memorial Hermann Greater Heights, will be held Wednesday, Sept. 27, from 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the SPJST Lodge on Beall Street in the Heights. The event, which has grown in popularity every year since 2013, is a free event for seniors and their families and offers an opportunity to put local businesses in front of members of the community who need their services. “When we started this event five years ago, we weren’t sure what sort of impact it would have,” said Leader publisher Jonathan McElvy. “Every year, we get notes and phone calls from the people who attended and all of them are so thankful for having an event that focuses solely on the needs of our seniors.” Memorial Hermann Greater Heights has been the presenting sponsor of the event every year, and they use the opportunity to visit with seniors who otherwise may not have scheduled needed visits to a local doctor. Along with healthcare, the Senior Expo offers every sort of business imaginable – from legal and insurance help to automotive care and estate planning. “When I talk to people about this event, there are two things that stand out,” McElvy said. “First, seniors aren’t always mobile, and this allows them to visit 50 or 60 local businesses in about four hours. Second, there’s not a local business that will have more than 500 people come by their store in one morning, and that’s exactly what happens here.” Registration is free, but we ask attendees to call (713) 686-8494 to register.
Despite funding, debris removal could take months By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com For many, the goal now is simply to move on from Harvey — but one major noticeable reminder looks to be sticking around for an extended period of time, stymying any sort of quick return to normalcy. As soon as Harvey’s wrath let up, Mayor Sylvester Turner deployed dozens of debris cleanup trucks to every corner of the battered city, but called the cleanup task a herculean one despite the rampant manpower dispatched to help weary citizens. Unfortunately, due to the wide swath of Harvey’s destruction, residents may need to prepare to hunker down, as the process is set to be arduous. Per County Engi-
neer John Blount, a complete cleanup could take up to three to four months. In the weeks since Hurricane Harvey left behind it a path of destruction all around Houston, streets up and down the local area have begun to resemble parts of a war zone more than quaint suburban neighborhoods, with debris lining the driveways and spilling out into the streets. From Garden Oaks to Timbergrove, Shady Acres to the Heights, the local area is among those waiting on the city to come around and help them push the re-set button on their lives, which cannot begin until Harvey’s cloud dissipates from their yards and sidewalks. In the end, no matter how successful efforts have been up to this point in time, Turner be-
lieves the job will not be highly thought of until every last piece has been cleared away - and fast -- because it will be a constant reminder of the loss experienced. To help streamline the process as much as possible, Turner requested an uptick in federal assistance, which appears to have been granted. According to Reuters, President Donald Trump recently authorized an increase in federal funding for debris removal and emergency procedures as the result of Harvey. “President Trump increased cost sharing to 90 percent federal funding for debris removal, including direct federal assistance, and a 100 percent federal funding for emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance,” the
Photo by Landan Kuhlmann A garbage truck drives through Timbergrove picking up debris last week. The neighborhood is one of many awaiting removal of debris left in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
White House said in a statement Sept. 2. There is no timetable for specific neighborhoods, due to the sheer volume left be-
hind. For more information on debris removal procedures, readers can visit houstontx. gov/solidwaste/.
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