FEMA Has Denied Individual Assistance for the July 2026 Texas Floods: What the September 28 Letter Says, Which Counties It Reaches, and Which Deadlines Are Still Running

What Changed, and When

Three separate federal documents sit behind this, and they do different things. Keeping them apart is what explains why some money is flowing while no household application exists.

• September 1, 2026 — the major disaster declaration. The President declared a major disaster for Texas, designated FEMA-4935-DR, for severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding. The notice carried in the Federal Register is titled Presidential Declaration of a Major Disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Texas. The phrase Public Assistance Only in the title is the operative fact: Public Assistance pays governments and certain non-profits to repair public infrastructure and cover emergency response work. It is not the household program.
• September 9, 2026 — the incident period was fixed. An amendment published at 91 FR 58246 set the incident period as July 12 through August 4, 2026. Whether damage happened inside that window is a threshold question for every program tied to this declaration.
• September 28, 2026 — the denial letter. A letter of that date from FEMA to Governor Greg Abbott, obtained and reported by KSAT, denied the state requests for Individual Assistance statewide and for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program statewide, and denied Public Assistance for eight additional counties. On the Public Assistance portion the letter stated that the infrastructure damage there was “not of the severity and magnitude to warrant their designation for Public Assistance.” On the household side, FEMA said the impact on individuals and households was not severe enough to warrant the program.

Public Assistance has since kept moving. On October 22, 2026 FEMA announced more than $135 million in Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program obligations across five states, Texas among them, including nearly $644,000 to Kerr County for emergency protective measures. Those are grants to governments for public work. They do not reopen, reverse or substitute for the household program, and no reporting indicates that they do.

Nothing in the public record so far shows an appeal has been filed. The office of the Governor and the Texas Division of Emergency Management have said they are reviewing the determination and the appeals process. A spokesperson for the Governor said “Texas will deliver every necessary resource to communities impacted by the July storms and floods.” Reporting on the letter notes that the state has 30 days from the date of the letter to appeal, which places that window in late October 2026. Whether Texas appeals, and what happens if it does, is not something this page can predict.

Who in Texas This Reaches

Two different county lists are in play, and a household can sit in one, both or neither.

• The 19 counties designated for Public Assistance under FEMA-4935-DR: Bandera, Crockett, Dimmit, Edwards, Frio, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, La Salle, Mason, Maverick, Menard, Real, Sutton, Uvalde, Val Verde and Zavala. This is a stretch of the Hill Country, the Edwards Plateau and the border country, and the designation benefits county and city governments and qualifying non-profits in them, not households.
• The eight counties named in the denied Public Assistance request: Atascosa, Bexar, Blanco, Brewster, Comal, Medina, Terrell and Wilson. Damage assessments had found infrastructure damage in them; the letter concluded it did not meet the threshold.
• Households anywhere in the affected area. The Individual Assistance request was statewide and it was denied in full, so a family in Kerrville, Uvalde, Hunt, Ingram, Comfort, Rocksprings or Del Rio is in the same position as a family in a county that was never on a list: there is no FEMA household application to file for this event.
• Renters as well as owners. Flood water that makes a unit unlivable raises habitability, repair, deposit and lease questions under Texas landlord-tenant law, and those run on their own track entirely separate from any federal declaration.
• Churches, food banks and other private non-profit organizations in the 19 designated counties, which are the group the Small Business Administration loan track attached to this declaration is written for — with the dates set out below.
• Anyone who was told in July or August to wait for FEMA. A good deal of early advice, including the position described in our August 28 page on this same event, rested on a pending request. The request is no longer pending.

What This Changes Legally

The denial removes one route and leaves the others untouched. What it mainly changes is which clock a household is running against.

• Private insurance is now the primary route for household losses. Homeowner, renter, flood and auto policies are contracts, and a claim under one is governed by the policy language and by Texas insurance law, not by whether FEMA designated a county. The Texas Department of Insurance lists “Options if your insurance isn’t paying enough or denies a claim’’ among the help available to Texans after a storm, and it handles complaints about an insurance company, agent or adjuster.
• Flood damage and wind damage are usually separate policies. A standard homeowner policy commonly excludes flood, and flood coverage commonly sits in a separate National Flood Insurance Program or private flood policy with its own notice and documentation requirements. Which policy a given loss falls under is frequently the whole dispute.
• Policy and statutory deadlines kept running through the months the request was pending. They were never paused by the declaration or by the wait, and some of them are measured from the date of loss rather than from the date a claim was decided.
• The federal loan track attached to this declaration has dates. Under the Public Assistance Only declaration the Small Business Administration notice provides disaster loans to private non-profit organizations that provide essential governmental-type services, for physical damage and for economic injury. The physical damage application deadline is November 2, 2026 and the economic injury deadline is June 1, 2027. These are not household programs, and a non-profit reading this should note how close the first date is.
• An appeal by the state, if one is filed, would not create a household application by itself. Individual Assistance opens through a designation; it is not something a family applies for in advance of one.

What this page cannot tell anyone is whether a particular policy covers a particular loss, whether a particular denial was properly handled, or what deadline governs a particular file. Those answers live in the policy and the claim file.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing here is advice about any individual case. These are the kinds of questions Texas attorneys describe working through after a flood when federal household aid is not available:

• Whether the loss was claimed under the right policy. Water that entered one way may be a flood loss and water that entered another way may be a wind-driven or plumbing loss, and the same house can have both.
• Whether a denial or a partial payment matches the policy. A lawyer reads the denial letter against the policy wording, the adjuster report and the estimate, which is a different exercise from arguing about the number.
• Whether the insurer met the claim-handling obligations Texas law places on it. Texas has statutory requirements for how promptly a claim must be acknowledged, decided and paid, and remedies when they are not met.
• What has to happen before a suit on a property claim. Texas law requires presuit notice to the insurer in property damage claims, with content and timing requirements, and getting that step wrong has consequences for the case.
• Whether a lease or a landlord obligation is in play for a renter. Repair duties, rent abatement, deposits and lease termination after a casualty are governed by the Texas Property Code and the lease.
• Whether other programs or responsible parties exist. Local and state resources, charitable funds, contractor disputes after a bad repair, and claims against a third party whose conduct contributed to a loss are all separate questions from the FEMA designation.

Many people in the affected counties have spent three months waiting for a federal answer that did not come, and have never read an insurance policy closely. That is an ordinary reason to talk to a lawyer, and talking to one costs nothing through this service.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The dates in this story are facts, and several of them are near.

• The flooding fell in the incident period July 12 through August 4, 2026, so a loss is already roughly three months old, and deadlines measured from the date of loss have been running that whole time.
• The letter is dated September 28, 2026, and reporting on it states a 30-day appeal window for the state, which puts that window in late October 2026.
• The Small Business Administration physical damage application deadline for qualifying private non-profit organizations under this declaration is November 2, 2026.
• Insurance claim files get harder to document as repairs are made, receipts are lost and memories fade, and a file assembled early tends to be a stronger file.

Because the federal household route is closed for this event, the practical question for a household is no longer what FEMA will decide but what the policy says and what the claim file shows. It is best to have a lawyer look at the actual paperwork while the documents and the damage are still available to examine.

If a lawyer in our network offers an initial consultation, it is free.

Sources

1. Presidential Declaration of a Major Disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Texas — Federal Register notice, FEMA-4935-DR, declared September 1, 2026, incident beginning July 12, 2026, designating 19 counties (primary document).
2. Presidential Declaration Amendment of a Major Disaster for Public Assistance Only for the State of Texas — Federal Register, 91 FR 58246, published September 14, 2026; incident period set as July 12 through August 4, 2026; physical loan application deadline November 2, 2026 and economic injury deadline June 1, 2027 (primary document).
3. FEMA denies public assistance request for Bexar County, several other counties after July storms, KSAT, October 21, 2026 — reporting on the September 28, 2026 letter, the eight named counties, the quoted severity and magnitude language, and the 30-day appeal window.
4. FEMA denies request for federal aid after July 2026 floods, Spectrum News, October 22, 2026 — independent reporting on the same letter, the stated reason regarding individuals and households, and the 30-day appeal window.
5. FEMA will not help Texans after July 2026 floods as agency tells states to lead disaster response, Texas Public Radio, October 21, 2026 — reporting on the Individual Assistance denial, damage in Kerr County and Uvalde, and the statements from the office of the Governor and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
6. FEMA approves millions for Texas recovery projects days after denying individual aid to flood survivors, KPRC, October 23, 2026 — the October 22, 2026 announcement of more than $135 million across five states, including nearly $644,000 to Kerr County for emergency protective measures.
7. Disasters, Texas Department of Insurance — state resource page listing help after a storm, including options if an insurer is not paying enough or denies a claim, and complaints about an insurance company, agent or adjuster.
8. July 2026 Texas floods: FEMA Individual Assistance still pending — related coverage on this site from August 28, 2026, written while the request was undecided.