It’s bad enough that fate and Mother Nature dropped 5 feet of rain on Greater Port Arthur in August 2017.

Our citizens have toiled mightily in fighting their way back. More than 16 months later, hundreds of fellow Texans remain in FEMA homes, with family members, in temporary quarters or out of the area altogether, awaiting their chance to return.

For some people, effecting a return depends at least in part upon the federal government. Last month, some of our fellow citizens began lining up for the possibility of homeowner assistance, courtesy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There’s some $205 million set aside for homeowners in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties, pending meeting certain conditions.

As important as it is to assist people back into their homes, it’s equally as important to mitigate the circumstances that drove them from their homes. Around here, those circumstances center around a lack of flooding prevention and poor drainage.

That’s why counties along the Texas Gulf Coast need infrastructure improvements. The state General Land Office, charged with distributing federal funds in Texas, has been awaiting its opportunity to distribute some $4.3 billion that would go a long way toward shoring up our flood-prone coast.

If only ….

Land Commissioner George P. Bush last week wrote the federal Office of Management and Budget, pleading with Washington to speed up the intricate processes of getting money here. OMB must approve rules by which Texas can spend funds already allocated for our state. Thus far, they’ve been short on giddy-up.

GLO spokeswoman Brittany Eck said last week the state must complete its plan for spending the money. But completion of such a plan must await publication of the federal rules. Horse, then cart. GLO can make a best guess about what those rules must be, but the rules can become intricate. If Texas guesses wrong and develops its plan fully, the state may be surprised by the rules when they are published. Then we’d start over.

Bush asked for OMB to publish the rules “so we can get started on construction of vital infrastructure projects to protect Texans from the type of damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.” In short: Pick it up. Hurricane season returns in June.

Of note, Eck said, is the rules must be published in six languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic and Urdu — the last a language used in Pakistan and some parts of India. Translating rules into Urdu could add about a month to the process.

This state has suffered too long. We ask our congressional delegation — including Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Randy Weber — to intervene on Texas’ behalf. Do it in English or even in Urdu, but do it quickly.