About 250 Homes in Montgomery County Have Flooded Again and Again. The County Wants to Buy Out 50 of Them.
By The Magnolia Standard · November 10, 2026
Some houses in this county have been mucked out more than once. The federal government will pay to move the people out and turn the lot back into open ground. The county is applying for the money now.
Montgomery County commissioners voted on November 5 to hire Hagerty Consulting for $59,000 to help the county apply for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. The grant pays to buy homes that have flooded repeatedly and then demolish them. The county's target is about 50 homes.
Jason Millsaps, who runs the county's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told commissioners about 250 properties in the county qualify. FEMA calls them "severe repetitive loss" properties: homes with several flood insurance claims on the record. Most are in Precincts 3 and 4, he said, because that is where the county has flooded worst in the past.
If you own one of those homes
- Nobody is forced to sell. The program is voluntary.
- Millsaps said his office will contact owners of eligible properties soon to ask whether they want to take part.
- Depending on household income, some owners will qualify for down payment help on their next home and for moving costs, paid from the grant.
- Once the county buys a property, the house comes down and the land stays green space.
If you do nothing, nothing changes. The house stays yours, and so does the flood risk.
The calendar
The county plans to send its application to the Texas Water Development Board in the coming weeks. The state board collects applications from Texas counties and has to submit them to FEMA by February. FEMA's flood mitigation program has more than $600 million available nationwide this cycle, according to the state board. The consultant's $59,000 can be paid back out of the grant if the county wins it.
This has been done before
The county has already bought 148 flood-prone properties this way, Millsaps said. "It's a really great program," he told the court, "not only to get them out of the mess that they're in, but we get them in a home that's way better and a much nicer place with very little expense to them."
Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Gray agreed. "It's a great program," he said.
Sources: Community Impact's November 5, 2026 report on the Commissioners Court meeting that day, for the vote, the consultant and its fee, the counts of eligible and purchased properties, the timeline, the funding estimate and the quotes; the Texas Water Development Board's Flood Mitigation Assistance page for the state's role in the program. Corrections: editor@themagnoliastandard.news.