Former Kerrville Mayor Judy Eychner watched the Guadalupe River rage Thursday afternoon as flooding pummeled the town where she’s lived for 35 years.
“You just wonder how so much water can get in one place at one time,” she said.
Eychner served as the Hill Country city’s leader from 2022-24. After last year, she’s no stranger to severe flooding in this area. But this time was different, she said. The water came steadily for days.
“It just doesn’t stop,” she said. “Last year, it was like a tsunami and came so quickly.”
Though Eychner’s home is elevated on a hill, water still made its way inside this morning, she said. But she was most worried about all the pieces of Kerrville that had only just begun to recover from the tragic flooding of a year ago — like the trees, now even more stooped from the pressure of wind and water, and many of the homes and businesses located upstream.
“They’re ruined again,” she said. “They will have to start all over again.”
Eychner said she fears that the back-to-back floods will mean fewer people send their children to camp in the area and fewer people make Kerrville their home. However, she was cautiously optimistic that improved warning systems, including the “CodeRed” alerts that pinged her phone throughout the night, had saved lives this year.
“From that standpoint, we're fortunate. We are blessed that things have taken place that will prevent that kind of loss of life,” she said. “But it is going to hurt.”