For a large group of volunteers, the search for victims of the July 4 flood begins every morning — before sunrise — in the parking lot of a Walmart in Kerrville.
It's an effort led by Thad Heartfield.
Standing in the center, ringed by volunteers, they start with a prayer. Then he says, "Let's gather in close and I'll give you a briefing." Heartfield isn't normally an emergency worker. He's an attorney from Beaumont, Texas. His family had a house in Hunt, an unincorporated community on the Guadalupe River.
On the day of the flood, Heartfield's son was staying there with three friends.
"I was on the phone with him at 4 a.m. when they were washed away from the home," he says. "The water just overwhelmed them. We're still missing my son, Aidan Heartfield, and Ella Cahill."