Jake Richards stood on a dusty plot of land along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville while excavators navigated the precarious and flood-ravaged banks in the background. The site he once called his home is now unrecognizable.
He recalled the night he lost everything. In the early morning hours of July 4, a wall of water rushed down the usually quaint waterways of Central Texas and took with it his RV. As the waves rose, Jake grabbed a few shirts and a pair of shorts. His wife Julia, a Texas-born musician, grabbed her guitars.
They had about two minutes to move their vehicle up the hill before the water became level with the tires of their RV. Jake and Julia bolted to the nearby outdoor patio of Howdy’s Bar, where they watched from afar as the powerful waters ravaged their home.
“After we got back down here, the screaming for people who are losing their stuff turned into screaming for people who are fighting for their lives at that point,” Richards said. “So you start to hear just like different screams. These like blood-curdling screams of families getting washed away from upstream, kids and everything.”
And just as quickly as they started, the screams stopped. And the silence, he said, was the most haunting sound in the world.
The raging waters quickly swept and killed John Burgess, Julia Burgess and their sons Jack and James, a family camping closest to the river, where temporary campers park. They are among more than 130 people who died in the devastating flash floods in Central Texas this month.
Hundreds of people were rescued in the days following the flood. Kerr County officials over the weekend said that the number of missing people significantly dropped from around 160 to just three as people believed to be missing for weeks had been accounted for.
While some search and rescue crews hope to return home soon, a washed-out Guadalupe River with debris-packed banks remains frozen in time as volunteer organizations and residents survey the long-term effects of one of the deadliest flash flooding events in the state’s history. Major Philip Swyers with the Salvation Army said the organization is anticipating being in the area for up to two years, “or until the funds run out.”
“This storm for first responders and others who may even have survivor’s guilt is very difficult,” Swyers said. “For first responders, you are doing everything you can to try to still be in a search and rescue mode because that means there’s still hope alive, and this does take a toll on people.”
The emotional toll alone, he said, will take residents of Kerrville and first responders a very long time to recover from. Several pastors and counselors remained on the scene two weeks later to speak with victims and volunteers.
“It’s a lot for people to see,” Swyers said.
The Salvation Army is still providing food and water to first responders, and gift cards to people in need. And as families in the area work to recover, their needs are evolving to things like appliances for home rebuilds. Swyers said the Salvation Army will be assisting on a case-by-case basis, but it all starts with people reporting their damages to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Throughout the week, residents who were left with lingering flood damage shuffled into the side doors of First Baptist Church in Kerrville for assistance from the federal government.
Organizations like FEMA, the Small Business Administration, Red Cross, the Texas Department of Insurance and Texas Legal Aid will remain at the disaster recovery center for several more weeks to assist people seeking resources. Debbie Davis, who lives in a condo on the Guadalupe River, said her HOA is facing about $500,000 worth of damage to the complex. And while some residents are left with thousands of dollars in debt and a long road ahead, Daivs said it wasn’t her own struggles that remained at the front of her mind.
“Every day we have seen the helicopters going up and down behind our house,” she said as her eyes welled. “They found three bodies right there behind us. I didn’t think I would cry anymore, but it just sort of gets to you, you know?”
While families work to recover, questions have been raised about whether they were given timely warnings before the wall of floodwaters came their way. On Monday, Texas lawmakers reconvened for a special session to discuss funding recovery efforts for the Texas Hill Country floods and preventing future disasters. Lawmakers are slated to revisit Kerrville to assess damage in the coming days.
Residents said it only took a few days for the roaring whirls of helicopter blades to blend in with the natural background of what was once a picturesque river city. As the sun set on Friday, cicadas chirped, emergency vehicles blared and silence fell over families who quietly prayed in front of a memorial wall in downtown Kerrville.
Children placed flowers in the chain link fence, where sticky notes and stuffed animals surrounded photographs of the men, women and children who were found dead after the flood. A woman who only identified herself as Christina had returned to the wall every day to refill buckets of items for people to adorn the memorial wall. She said she had received donations from Walmart and other members of the community.
Roberto Marquez, a Dallas-based artist, had lined a section of the Guadalupe River with flags and crosses adorned with flowers and green bows. Every day he adds more. Marquez stood under a tent in front of Nimitz Lake on Friday and dragged a paintbrush over a canvas.
The next day, a group of search and rescue firefighters from Mexico City used Marquez’s paint to draw the Mexico flag on the sidewalk in front of the memorial. The location was one of the last stops for Stephania Cruz — one of those firefighters who traveled several hours to join the search for missing people — before she returned home.
“Us and Mexico, and the whole world, we are all the same, we are all human, we are all brothers and sisters and we should all help each other out,” she said as she spoke in Spanish.
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