HOUSTON -- If there's any truth to the saying, “Home is where the heat is,” it is easy to see why Turkisa Harris' heart is broken.

“Everything I've tried to work to get money for is gone,” she said. “The hardest part if losing everything I had. My friends. My roommates.”

After returning from Louisiana, Harris found that Hurricane Ike carved out a new door to apartment 229.

“It's horrible to stand here and look at it. It's not even the same,” she said.

Harris is one of the thousands of Texans waiting on FEMA. She applied for funding 12 days ago and still, nothing.

11 News: How would you describe the communication process between evacuees and FEMA?

“There's really no communication. It's really hard to get through to them, to talk to them or anybody to have (an) appointment to talk to somebody. There is no communication,” said Harris.

Ask the same question to FEMA, and the answer gets a bit muddled.

“It's gone rather well. I'm glad you pointed out the word, communicating. That is the most effective way we can get to the applicants,” said FEMA spokesman Ken Higgenbotham.

Hearing that frustrates Harris because she's waiting for the government to give her some idea of what her future holds.

“I'm trying to wait out for FEMA and see if they are going to contact me back,” said Harris. “Because I have a lot of friends and co-workers who have been receiving (help) and they have been coming out and visiting their properties and everything, but no one has contacted me.”

Higgenbotham said applicants should stop by a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center to get an update or call the FEMA hotline during off-hours. He also said that FEMA might bring in manufactured homes used during Hurricane Katrina to cope with the high demand for housing.

The homes would not be the same ones, though that caused so many people to become ill.

11 News: FEMA spends more than 1 million a month in Arkansas where it stores and maintains manufactured homes. In fact, it pays 25,000 a month in rent alone. Will some of those come to Texas?

“There is no final word on that. As I said, there are many variables in this equation. We want to make sure the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed and (that) we are assisting people in Texas,” said Higgenbotham.

Harris just hopes her wait will soon be over, so her heart and home can begin to rebuild.

“There's people like me who have nothing and I'm trying to hard to get in contact with (FEMA) and see if they can help me,” he said.