Waiting for help in Deweyville, Texas

On the banks of the Sabine river, the last point in Texas before you hit Louisiana, the small hamlet of Deweyville, Texas is waiting for help. It's small, only about 1,000 people. Driving through here you see eight of 10 houses with a tarp on the roof and a tree or two down in the yard. This is timber country in deep East Texas. Pine trees 80 feet tall ring most of the houses. Or at least they did until Rita passed over. The eye of the storm came right up the river. It snapped trees three feet in diameter all over the area. You can find the occasional house with a roofer on top, new shingles being slapped down, but for the most part people here are waiting. Waiting for help.

The Busby family evacuated to Missouri during the storm. They came back two weeks ago and have been living in a tent in their front yard. Cecil, his wife Christina, and their daughter, 7-year-old Brianna. Their water well works, so they have water, and as of last week, power was back, but their house can't be lived in... the ceiling fell in when trees came through the house. Cecil cut the trees out, the Corps of Engineers tarped the roof, but the Busbys are waiting for FEMA to inspect the house and either give them a housing voucher or (what they would prefer) a trailer to put on their land. Cecil's grandfather built the house, they hope they can save it.

School starts here again on Wednesday. The kids have missed 19 school days and have been out of school just shy of a month. It's the last school district in Texas to reopen after the storm. Mold is an issue throughout the High school, the roof of the elementary school was peeled back, and the middle school had damage as well.