For years, when west Montgomery County crews needed extra water, cots, blankets or other emergency supplies after a storm, the backup plan was simple but risky: go to Conroe and get it. Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said that worked when the west side of the county was smaller and easier to navigate. But after Hurricane Harvey, multiple winter storms, floods, tornadoes and a wildfire, he said the distance started to become a problem.

The gist: Now, Precinct 2 is nearly finished with a $1.4 million emergency management building on its county barn property that Riley said should be online around May 1. 

What residents should know: Precinct 2’s building is one piece of a broader county effort to spread emergency resources beyond Conroe. Jason Millsaps, executive director of Montgomery County’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said identical supply warehouses are coming online in Precincts 2 and 4 to help reach areas that are harder to serve quickly from Conroe when roads are flooded or blocked by debris.

AT&T has awarded Lone Star College Foundation a $40,000 community investment, according to an April 22 news release.

The $40,000 will be used to help buy 50 new laptops and backpacks for students in Lone Star College-Tomball’s lifePATH program, according to the news release. The program serves neurodivergent students as they work toward independence, career exploration and an associate degree. 

The details: College officials said the new laptops will help students complete homework and research outside the classroom while building technology skills tied to future jobs. The lifePATH program also includes training in soft skills such as communication, professionalism and critical thinking, and students are using AT&T Connected Learning’s free online resources to strengthen digital skills, according to the release. 

According to Lone Star College, the lifePATH program launched at LSC-Tomball more than a decade ago. In 2019, House Bill 3165 allowed Lone Star College System to establish an occupational and life skills associate degree, which is the only degree of its kind in Texas, according to the college.

Greater Houston suburban areas such as Waller, Brookshire and Baytown are trending strong for home sales growth, according to the Houston Association of Realtors' latest Hottest Communities report for the first quarter of 2026.

At a glance: The Huffman area, east of Atascocita, tops the list with a 117.1% increase in home sales since the end of 2025, the report shows. Similarly, transactions in Brookshire, located west of Katy, more than doubled compared to the previous year, and the fast-growing Waller community saw a 99% jump in transactions.

Meyerland, Baytown and Magnolia also showed significant growth in transactions compared to last year. 

The cause: The communities are leading the rankings for home sales due to a combination of new construction and affordability, with seven of the top 10 reporting average home prices under the Houston-area average of $420,510, per an April 27 news release.

Also of note: As for luxury communities—where home prices exceed $1 million—the top-performing areas include Tanglewood, Bellaire and Memorial Villages, all of which are located just outside of Houston's Inner Loop.

Friendswood and Alief ISDs had the largest percentages of students with dyslexia and autism across the Greater Houston area, according to Texas Education Agency data released March 13 and April 9.

The overview: Community Impact analyzed 30 local school districts across the Greater Houston region to determine which schools have the most students enrolled in special education programs.

According to the data, the districts with the largest total of students receiving special education services in 2025-26 are:

• Houston ISD with 21,430 students
• Katy ISD with 18,443 students
• Cy-Fair ISD with 17,584 students
• Fort Bend ISD with 12,688 students
• Conroe ISD with 11,239 students

In the early hours of July 4, 2025, an intense rainstorm pummeled communities in the Texas Hill Country, submerging low-water crossings as segments of the Guadalupe River rose more than 30 feet in 90 minutes. Twenty-seven young campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic, a private Christian girls summer camp located along the river in Hunt.

Those deaths could have been prevented if camp leadership took action sooner or had a written evacuation plan in place, investigators told a panel of state lawmakers tasked with studying the flood response during an April 27 hearing.

Quote of note: “Questions about what should happen next are many, but for me, one thing is clear: This tragedy could have been prevented,” Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, said.

Zooming in: Camp Mystic staff had more than two hours to evacuate 386 campers from their cabins, investigator Casey Garrett said.

In violation of state law, the camp did not have a written evacuation plan and counselors were not trained on what to do in an emergency, she said.

Community Impact is reporting on home flooding and flood insurance rates, and is looking to hear from homeowners in the Tomball and Magnolia communities who have experienced flood damage and/or have flood insurance. Please contact Editor Lizzy Spangler at [email protected] if you’re willing to share your story in an interview.