Tropical Storm Amelia (1978) - Aftermath

Aftermath

Following the storm, there was some controversy as to the nature of the storms. A cloud seeding project was underway near Albany only hours before the town was hit with flooding. However, the rains were determined to have been tropical in origin. At the request of Governor Dolph Briscoe, President Jimmy Carter declared Kendall, Kerr, and Bandera Counties as disaster areas, allowing citizens in these areas to receive federal aid. All three counties had previously been declared disaster areas due to the prior drought. Later, three more counties — Young, Shackleford, and Haskell — were added to the list. Briscoe described the disaster as one of the worst floods in the history of the state. Evacuation centers were set up in Kerrville, Comfort, and Center Point to allow refugees to wait out the floods. In Bandera, 300 people applied for relief and 200 mobile homes were sent to help the homeless. The cafeteria of the junior high school was used as both a morgue and a Red Cross emergency center.

In Albany, New York, a disk jockey named Bryan Jackson helped organize a relief effort for the Texas town of the same name, with sponsorship from radio station WOKO and a local supermarket chain. After raising six tons of emergency aid and $1,000 from area residents, a C-130 airplane was loaded with the provisions, but the plane was continuously grounded due to calls saying that Albany, Texas was not a disaster area and did not need the relief. After what was described by U.S. Senator Samuel S. Stratton as almost a comedy of errors, the flight was funded by the Defense Department and was able to take off. In addition, a sheriff dispatch in the Texas town mentioned that aid was possibly being sent from several other towns with the same name as well as from other Texas towns like Abilene.