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More than 60 volunteers with a veteran-led nonprofit disaster response organization were mobilized to Kerr and Tom Green counties, assisting with clearing debris and mucking out flood-damaged homes to combat fast-spreading mold in extreme heat and humidity.
Team Rubicon has a network of more than 200,000 volunteers, who they call “grayshirts” — about 65% of which are either veterans or active-duty military. The nonprofit’s CEO, Art delaCruz, said the majority of the volunteers that assisted in the flood response were from Texas, including some volunteers local to Kerr County.
“Shortly after the flooding, we were involved with addressing and cataloging the needs of the community in conjunction with the Salvation Army,” he explained. “We had to support 2,100 search and rescue personnel that were here. They had to have priority, so we tried to do the things that maybe local law enforcement wasn’t able to do.”
DelaCruz said their volunteers who are veterans become powerful assets in moments of disaster and were able to make a difference in a time of need because of their education, training and experiences.
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“From seeing the devastation here in Kerrville, it's not unlike the decision making that many of these women and men had to make in combat,” he added. “Now they can just use it in a different way once they take off their uniform.”
DelaCruz said that having hundreds of thousands of volunteers ready to mobilize across the country allows the organization to respond quickly to multiple disasters at once.
“We had volunteers that are trained and available, many of them from Dallas, San Antonio, from the local area, from Houston that were here once it was safe to get volunteers on the ground working,” delaCruz said.
Volunteers brought their own food and water and were housed in mobile tents at the Hunt Elementary School that they brought in to avoid creating competition for lodging or essential items.
“One of the goals of our organization is to never create an undue [or] added tax to the community we’re serving,” delaCruz said. “The goal is to be able to collaborate with them and create a tide that lifts all the boats.”
DelaCruz said Team Rubicon strives to be among the first to arrive during a disaster and one of the last organizations to leave. He said the organization plans to offer continued support to the community in the form of continued cleanup efforts and helping other organizations in the rebuilding process.
“It will be months and months and months of recovery in areas like this,” delaCruz said. “I am certain we will be in these counties, in the adjacent counties, for months to come, and we'll go through different transitions in the recovery process.”
More information on how to donate to or volunteer with Team Rubicon can be found here.
