Published: April 08, 2009 01:42 pm      

Crump: Pine Forest dodged major bullets

PINE FOREST — Located just north of Vidor, this small community dealt with its share of adversity following Hurricane Ike, but on a much smaller scale.

Jody Crump, mayor of Pine Forest, said his small city had residents with little to no damage, while others sustained tremendous damage to their homes.

“Overall, we dodged a bullet,” Crump said following the storm. “We had some people with catastrophic damage who will probably have to rebuild, but we have people on the other end of the spectrum who only needed to rake their yard and were done with their cleanup.”

Crump said only two homeowners which received major damage as a result of the hurricane are still needing to rebuild their homes at this time.

“One had major water damage, and the other lost half of his roof when Ike’s winds caught the carport and took the roof with it,” Crump added. “They both said they are not leaving Pine Forest and will do whatever it takes to rebuild their homes.”

Crump added the city is “working on crossing its T’s and dotting its I’s” FEMA paperwork and hopes to be finished soon.

Since the storm, Pine Forest has re-instated its one-man police department.

“We’ve had a good transition from no police department to a working police department and municipal court,” Crump said. “He’s enforcing ordinances and codes which have been lacking since we halted our police department a while back, and it’s making a difference.”

Crump said the only remaining difficulties the city needs to address, courtesy of Ike, are road damage and drainage issues.

“Those are issues most communities in Orange County will have to face as well,” he said. “Pine Forest will continue to move forward, like everyone else, and we’ll be fine.”