It's been four months since the Summer of '25 floods, and Texans on Mission's disaster relief effort has moved from emergency relief to rebuilding.
Summer Hill Country floods create widescale disaster, reap widespread response
The summer storm that hit the Texas Hill Country created record flooding over the region and triggered a massive, international-scale disaster response, including a wave of Texans on Missions volunteers. The storm hit Kerrville hardest, but other Texas communities, including San Angelo, Hunt, Ingram, Center Point, Menard and San Saba, also suffered.
The effect of the floods and the response to them will long echo through loss of loved ones, legislation and the lingering fear of what future storms could bring. But that effect will live in the hearts of those who survived and those who ran to their aid after July 4.
The TXM deployment, which is still ongoing, differs from many others because of the incredible loss of life that affected most of the survivors. There’s an air of grief among many. One team member noted that a TXM assessor team had to wait for law enforcement to clear a home they were assessing. The authorities located and removed a body in the mud before assessors were allowed in to do their work.
Scenes like that one prompted several TXM responders to comment that the Hill Country floods, especially the one that hit Kerrville, initiated “a deployment unlike any other.”
Early morning terror
Among the factors that made the deployment so different was the swiftness of the flood and resulting loss of life. More than 130 people died in the tragedy.
Kerr County flood survivors Ann and Will Britt recalled the terror of the early morning flood surge that could have taken their lives. Will checked his phone’s weather app as he walked into their living room. When he looked at the glass front door, he saw flood waters already head-high beyond the door. He turned to run and get his wife when the front door exploded open and water rushed through and smashed out of the broad, glass back door. If he had not acted so quickly, Will would have been swept out of his home and into the raging river. They spent the rest of the night sheltering upstairs.
Texans on Mission volunteers arrived two weeks later (right) to rip out ruined wooden flooring, remove appliances and cut away sheetrock in preparation for the Britts to eventually rebuild their home, offering a tangible measure of hope to the family.
Despite the loss of much of their home, they said they are thankful for surviving. The Britts share a property line with Camp Mystic, where 27 campers and counselors died, including Camp Director Rick Eastland, a family friend.
The loss of so many girls’ lives nearby “affected all of us at home here,” she said. “The grief is just overwhelming.”
Following the flood, TXM Disaster Relief leaders immediately mobilized an Incident Management Team, including flood recovery teams, feeding, box ministry, shower/laundry, asset protection, assessors and chaplains for the response.
Because of the scale of the need and ongoing first-response search efforts following the flood, authorities slowed response efforts while searchers continued their work. But Texans on Mission-trained chaplains were in Kerrville immediately to provide spiritual and emotional support to the community.
At Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville, TXM chaplains joined Pastor John Wheat (left) at the church, which was used as a meeting point for parents and relatives of many of the then-missing victims. Wheat said the community was reeling from the tragedy. “We've had great loss of life, great loss of property.”
“We were there to pray with families, John said, “but pretty soon it was apparent that there was another need, because some of the parents there would be united with their children, and there's another group of parents that wouldn't.”
The church served in that capacity for three days, then transitioned to serving as the host for TXM Disaster Relief teams. John Wheat’s brother, Robert, serves as director of missions for Hill Country Baptist Association. Robert, who is a Texans on Mission volunteer, contacted TXM and called for a response from its disaster relief volunteers.
“These are the best, most willing servants that get up and go and do whatever it takes,” said Robert (right). “Whether it's handing out (moving) boxes, cleaning mud and debris, chain sawing or even helping do laundry for the teams that keep going out.”
Providing a ‘chaplain moment’ to survivors
Robert also pointed out the immediate response of TXM chaplains as a "point of connection “that reaches out to these folks for the first time. Many of them are desperate.”
TXM chaplains have never been more needed than in the HIll Country response. Chaplain Paul Jones worked with one survivor who “was very distraught because they had lost everything in the house and everything was flooded.
“As soon as I started talking to him … he just started weeping,” Jones said. The man was “a burly guy, and his two sons and his daughter-in-law were there helping him. … He was getting the support from his family that he needed, but it was an overwhelming task.
“We prayed with him and, at the end of the day he was much better,” Jones said. “And so by the end of the day today, that particular family was really experiencing hope. They were joyful and got to pray with them.”
TXM Chaplain Kai Kowalski (left) said the initial chaplain team ministered to survivors who experienced life-changing trauma and “miraculous” events during and after the disaster.
“I see and hear of miracle after miracle after miracle,” Kowalski said. “But then I hit the deep end of where two people, two families, are just looking for closure for what they've already lost. To me, and having that, that is a chaplain moment.”
A chaplain moment, he explained, is “spreading the Gospel to the people, being the voice of Christ and getting out there” among hurting people to share the love of Jesus and letting them know that there are men and women who care for them.”
He said the group’s dedication to sharing their faith “is what Texans on Mission is all about. It's not about fixing things. Fixing things can be done by the 1,000 other people who are here. It's about the voice of Christ and the hands of Christ being given out to the people who need hope.”
The ministry of mud out
While so many died, many more thousands were left displaced or with homes totally flooded and full of mud, silt and debris. Just days after the deluge, John Vlasek of Hunt (right with TXM volunteers) stood in the middle of his home, stripped bare of furnishings, walls, ceilings and flooring. Even his rock fireplace was gone. The scene was testimony to the height and depth of the floodwaters that destroyed the house July 4. The waterline of debris can still be seen just below the ceiling.
Surrounding him, Texans on Mission volunteers continued to scrape floors and remove nails from studs. They’d already torn out everything else, and were preparing to spray a black mold preventative. Their work was a critical step that will prepare the Vlasek family for the next phase of their disaster recovery, rebuilding.
As Vlasek stood watching, a TXM volunteer came over and offered a hug in a show of support and love.
“This, … all of these volunteers, it means everything to us,” Vlasek said. “I can’t believe they’re here and helping us. I don’t know what. …”
Overcome with emotion, he didn’t finish the sentence. His reaction was common among families who survived the tragic flood.
One of Vlasek’s neighbors noted in passing, “We’re all experiencing some form of PTSD. Every time a helicopter passes by or a door slams, I jump.”
Working one home over from Vlasek’s, Benny Williams serves as the “blue cap” leader for TXM’s Marble Falls Disaster Relief, which had swollen to 30 people from several cities. His team provided mud out work for the Vlasek family and two of their neighbors.
“We have a large team, and so we split them up, and all of these houses are pretty much complete, total removal on the inside,” Williams said. “The house structure is fine, and it didn't float off the slab or anything like that, so the houses can be rebuilt.”
In another Hunt neighborhood, Sid Riley and Nathan Buchanan canvassed a small subdivision prior to sending in day volunteers to provide mud out work in the 10 homes there. Riley is TXM day volunteers coordinator, and Buchanan is TXM’s overall volunteer coordinator.
Riley said day volunteers provide “synergy” to large deployments. “They bring a willingness to serve and learn. They are a force multiplier of our trained volunteers that in some cases quadruples our work we can perform in a given time.
“Our day volunteers often see their work as an opportunity to demonstrate to others what we have been called to do and often generates a desire to join organizations like ours.”
One of those new joiners was Danielle Cisco (far left) of Fort Worth, who joined her grandmother, Debby Cisco (near left), in San Angelo for a week of disaster relief in flood-impacted San Angelo. It was Danielle’s first deployment with Texans on Mission. Over the course of their time in San Angelo, someone handed Danielle a saw, and she quickly, and proudly, became known as “the cutter girl,” tackling deconstruction work like sawing through walls and tearing up moldy flooring.
“I never thought learning how to use a circular saw would be part of my work as a disciple, but here we are," Danielle cheerfully said.
More importantly, she connected with residents — praying, listening and bringing light to people facing devastation.
One woman, Carla, was especially moved, said Danielle. “She kept calling us angels, but really, we’re just normal, dirty people trying to do God’s work.”
‘Heroic’ support credited for sustained response
While hundreds of volunteers responded to the flooding with rolled-up sleeves to strip drywall and shovel mud from homes, many more hundreds contributed to the relief by “giving heroically,” said TXM Chief Mission Officer John Hall. “Their contributions were key to bringing hope to survivors. We could not have sustained this response … and continue to sustain it through our Rebuild campaign … if not for hundreds of faithful and new donors who gave so that survivors could thrive.”
As the storm’s effects were becoming known during July 4, donors began calling or donating online, he said. “Church members banded together in support. Individuals called or mailed checks written from their hearts. A couple of young girls set up a lemonade stand to raise funds.
“When we saw the support like these that built for our deployment, it was such an inspiring feeling,” said Hall. “A lot of folks may not realize that those who give in support are very much there with us in spirit when we deploy and are an active part of our ability to go and serve.”
Lenamon: ‘We can never forget … there will be other disasters’
Texans on Mission Chief Executive Officer Mickey Lenamon (right, center) said the floods’ effects will continue to influence and inform TXM deployments “for years to come.
“This summer I visited a makeshift memorial to the victims of the flood. During that solemn visit, I fully realized how the Texas Hill Country flooding disaster will leave its mark on our hearts and memories for years. And as one of the deadliest events in our state’s history, it will impact and inform our disaster awareness, preparation and response for generations to come.”
The visit and his leadership during the response led him to realize, he said, “we can never forget that just as suddenly as this summer’s floods affected our state, there will be other disasters on the horizon. We can never sleep. (We must) always be ready to respond.”