{"id":34151,"date":"2025-07-12T04:52:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T04:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=34151"},"modified":"2025-07-12T04:52:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T04:52:59","slug":"texan-communities-reel-as-holiday-idyll-becomes-a-disaster-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=34151","title":{"rendered":"Texan communities reel as holiday idyll becomes a disaster zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Jacqueline White moved to the banks of the Guadalupe River in Comfort, Texas, two years ago, she could not imagine living in a more picturesque spot. On July 4, catastrophic floods turned it into a death trap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I can live there any more,\u201d said White, who is now staying with her sisters in the coastal town of Rockport. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to move a lot further away from the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people of the Texas Hill Country are reeling from a flash flood that swept through the region on Independence Day, inundating summer camps and trailer parks and destroying dozens of homes with a savagery that locals are struggling to fathom.<\/p>\n

At least 120 people were killed, but many expect the death toll to rise significantly \u2014 161 people remain unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

Kerr County, the area worst affected by the flood, is full of holiday homes nestled in spectacular scenery that is one of the biggest draws of the Lone Star State\u2019s tourist industry. It is now synonymous with one of the worst \u2014 and most lethal \u2014 US natural disasters<\/a> in recent memory.<\/p>\n

White and her children were evacuated to safety in the early hours of July 4. In their absence, a wall of water lifted their cabin and deposited it about 6 meters away. It now lies at a tilt, like a toy cast aside by an impatient child.<\/p>\n

White was lucky: she got to safety and so did her mother and stepfather, who live next door. But further to the west it was a different story. At Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls in nearby Hunt, 27 campers and staff members were killed in the flood.<\/p>\n

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Some have criticised the authorities, saying state officials had failed to invest in adequate flood control and early warning systems.<\/p>\n

But locals are stoical. \u201cPeople keep pointing the finger at others, but I live on the river \u2014 and I know it can go up,\u201d said Woody Chambless, White\u2019s stepfather, as he cleared piles of rubbish and tangled tree roots from the ground floor of his house. \u201cYou have to take some responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas. Twenty-seven campers and staff members were killed in the flood<\/span> \u00a9 AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The destruction is on an unimaginable scale, especially around Hunt and nearby Ingram. Local officials have spoken of piles of debris 20ft to 30ft high that they warn could be full of dead animals and human body parts and are so big they can contain a recreational vehicle. They speak of flood lines 30ft up on tree trunks and rescuers combing through wreckage on their hands and knees.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Chambers owns nine recreational vehicles that she leased out to holidaymakers at a campsite in Comfort. Eight of them were washed away in the floods. Some were retrieved and stand forlornly on the riverbank, wrecked and mud-spattered.<\/p>\n

Many of the stately cypresses that once crowded her RV park were also swept away in the torrent, while others were reduced to disfigured stumps. A few remain, brown with mud and bent over at a perilous angle, as if twisted by a hurricane. \u201cThey will be our memorial to the flood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Cheryl<\/picture>
Cheryl Chambers said she is confident the disaster would not dent the region\u2019s enduring popularity<\/span> \u00a9 Guy Chazan\/FT<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t prepared for something of this magnitude, but it\u2019s tiny compared to what happened at other camps \u2014 we got evacuated, and we had no fatalities,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

She walks down to the Guadalupe now and again to see if any bodies have washed up on the riverbank, taking care to avoid the water moccasins \u2014 venomous semi-aquatic snakes \u2014 that appeared on land in the wake of the flood.<\/p>\n

Despite the destruction, she is confident the disaster would not dent the region\u2019s enduring popularity. \u201cThis is too beautiful of an area not to share it with everybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With its verdant hillsides, natural springs and clear, fast-moving rivers, the Hill Country has been cherished by generations of Texans. In a state where summer temperatures regularly exceed 40C, it is an idyll and a refuge. Many yearn to buy a parcel of land and build a house there, among the creeks, streams and 100-year-old oak trees.<\/p>\n

For decades, children have been coming to summer camps on the banks on the Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/picture>
People clear debris from a home that was damaged from the floods along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas<\/span> \u00a9 Gerald Herbert\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the area has long been nicknamed \u201cflash flood alley\u201d, and is now a forlorn sight. Weather analytics company AccuWeather has estimated the floods will cost the region $18bn-$22bn from damage to homes and infrastructure as well as disruption to commerce and tourism and the long-term healthcare costs of survivors.<\/p>\n

Hunt, home to Camp Mystic, is now a graveyard of trees laid low by the torrent. Crumpled cars destroyed in the disaster rest in lines along Highway 39, Kerr County\u2019s main artery, next to the bare concrete slabs left by houses whipped away by the surging floodwaters. A sign at the roadside says \u201cJesus wept\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some 2,200 personnel \u2014 some on horseback, some on foot \u2014 pick through the wreckage of homes, trees and infrastructure looking for dead bodies. The search area has been divided into grids, with each 1.2 mile segment taking one to three hours to comb through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely treacherous, time-consuming. It\u2019s dirty work, the water is still there,\u201d said Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens. \u201cWe\u2019re having to go layer by layer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty Matteson, a 94-year-old resident of Hunt, spent July 4 hunkered in her attic with seven other family members as the flood waters rose around her house.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandson said, \u2018would you like me to pray?\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd I said yes.\u201d Minutes later, he looked out to see the water had begun to recede.<\/p>\n

Her house, which she has lived in for 38 years, will have to be \u201cgutted\u201d, she said. Much of it was filled with contaminated water that stank of urine, buckled the floor and was absorbed by the walls. <\/p>\n

Like many in the area, Matteson has no flood insurance. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to start over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In contrast to places on the coast such as Galveston, counties in central Texas have very low insurance coverage. In Kerr County just 2 per cent of homeowners are covered under the federal flood insurance programme, NFIP, data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows.<\/p>\n

Across the more than 20 counties named in the state\u2019s disaster declaration, NFIP coverage is in the single digits.<\/p>\n

Standard homeowners\u2019 and renters\u2019 insurance policies exclude flooding \u2014 private insurers have long considered the peril an \u201cuntouchable risk\u201d because of the challenges of modelling it, according to the Insurance Information Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we can rebuild will all depend on the generosity of others,\u201d said Matteson\u2019s grandson, Barry Adelman.<\/p>\n

But his grandmother is determined to stay. \u201cI love it there, especially the cypresses in my backyard,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so peaceful, it\u2019s my home and I would love to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/picture>
Brian Olsen said: \u2018I have no alternative but to rebuild\u2019 <\/span> \u00a9 Guy Chazan\/FT<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Others, though, are struggling in the face of the damage. Brian Olsen, who runs a dog kennel called Paws on the River and rents out a small collection of holiday cabins in Ingram, wells up when he thinks back to the early hours of July 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost $500,000 in terms of property damage and lost income \u2014 all in the space of 45 minutes,\u201d he said, clicking his fingers. \u201cI\u2019m 61 \u2014 everything I had was in this business.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also lost most of his personal belongings \u2014 photo albums, college diplomas and other mementos. A few muddy clothes that he managed to retrieve hang on his fence, drying in the intense Texan sun. Dead fish are on his driveway and huge mushrooms have grown in his yard after the flood waters receded. <\/p>\n

Despite the havoc wrought on his home and his business, Olsen said he will probably remain. \u201cWho\u2019s going to buy this place from me in this condition?\u201d he asked. \u201cI have no alternative but to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Lee Harris in London<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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