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Former Kerrville mayor Bill Blackburn recalls his family's harrowing escape from the floodwaters

Bill Blackburn has lived in Kerrville for 40 years, even serving as mayor from 2018 to 2022.

"Yes, we've seen floods on the Guadalupe River over the years," he said. "But that level of flooding, that amount of water is just hard to believe."

Blackburn said his daughter-in-law up and two granddaughters were staying just west of Camp Mystic when someone woke them up around 3 a.m. Friday as the Guadalupe River spilled over its banks faster than a longtime resident like Blackburn had ever seen.

The mother collected her daughters and what belongings she could and got in her car, driving toward Hunt. On the way they hit floodwaters that quickly climbed halfway up their car doors.

"[She] used very good judgment, was able to get the car to the higher ground and then she and the girls up on a hill, to wait out the storm," he said.

Blackburn said she almost didn't make it.

"When I think about their experience and what could have happened, of course ... it just, it does you in," he said.

While they survived, Blackburn acknowledged the many people who didn't.

"I feel like there's a blanket of grief and sadness just over this community," he said. "When you think about the lives lost, the numbers missing, the structural damage and structures that are damaged and destroyed, the natural beauty.

"It is so hard. It is just almost too much."