For one Colony Ridge family, receiving the keys to their newly rebuilt home Tuesday, Sept. 1, meant finally having a place to call home again after years of dealing with flooding and storm damage.
Diana Eloisa, a wife and mother of four, received the keys during a ceremony at her home in the Santa Fe subdivision of the Colony Ridge community. Representatives from the Texas General Land Office were there for the key handoff.
Eloisa’s home was damaged by Hurricane Beryl in 2024 and was rebuilt through the GLO’s 2024 Disasters Homeowner Assistance Program.
This was not Eloisa’s first experience dealing with the effects of a major flood. She also experienced flooding during Hurricane Imelda in 2019, making the damage from Beryl another difficult chapter for her family.
Now, Eloisa, her husband and their four children can begin settling back into their rebuilt home.
Looking back at the process of getting assistance, Eloisa said it required patience, faith and making sure everything was done correctly.
“It’s a lot of paperwork, and a lot of patience, and a lot of faith. Because at first I thought, like, ‘Oh, I don’t even know if I’m going to get it.’ But it’s not like that,” Eloisa said.
She said faith was especially important throughout the process.
“You have to have a lot of faith in God, and you have to have a lot of patience,” she said.
Eloisa also stressed the importance of having all the required paperwork.
“And you have to have all the right paperwork,” she said.
The Texas General Land Office said its rebuilding and repair reimbursement programs were available to help homeowners affected by the 2024 disasters.
GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., said the programs were intended to help families recover and move forward after losing or damaging their homes in a disaster.
“Recovery means more than repairing what was lost, it is about reigniting dreams and helping Texas families as they move forward towards a brighter tomorrow,” Buckingham said.