Home looks drastically different these days for Ashlee Willis. She and her family own Asher Acres, a small farm located on the banks of Sandy Creek in northwestern Travis County.
Her neighborhood was among the hardest hit when deadly floods swept through Central Texas this past July. Nearly 200 homes in the area were damaged or destroyed, including Willis'.
"We are currently in campers back on the farm, trying our best to rebuild," she said. "We are using, actually, the slab foundation that used to be our brewery building as our community patio. We've made it kind of cute."
Willis said she and her family barely managed to survive the flood waters that ravaged Sandy Creek during the early morning hours of July 5.
Her mother, Brandy Gerstner, talked about the experience at a recent rally in front of the Texas Governor's Mansion in Austin.
"My husband had to push me out the door. [He was] screaming, 'Get to the greenhouse, Brandy. The house is going,'" she said."I was terrified."
Gerstner remembers telling her daughter "goodbye" and that she loved her before making her way to safety in the greenhouse.
The family survived, but Gerstner said it wasn't until later that morning that the scale of the devastation sank in.
"As the sun rose ... we realized that my sister's home and everyone on the other side of the creek was gone," Gerstner said. "Only piles of mutilated debris [were] left."
Gerstner and her family took turns calling 911 until their phone batteries died. At some point, she said, an operator was able to confirm that a woman matching her sister's description was at a local hospital.
Though her home had been swept away, Gerstner's sister had miraculously survived.
Cleanup continues
It's now been nearly five months since the disaster hit. Willis said she and her family, as well as most of the neighborhood, are still in recovery mode.
"If you look at the property, like just overlooking the vastness of it, it looks great," she said. "The big debris is gone … the problem is, when you look down at the earth, it is so filled with trash."
If you look at the creek bed today, you'll notice pieces of broken glass, bits of countertop, toys and other personal belongings that were swept away by floodwaters.
That's where people like Sarah Ashworth come in. Ashworth, a former nurse from Liverpool, England, has been on the ground, helping people in Sandy Creek since the days after the flood. She now serves as a volunteer field manager with the Austin Disaster Relief Network.
"What I'm doing as the field manager for them is really trying to concentrate on those who have had total loss or major loss," Ashworth said. "That means that they have lost their home, or they have considerable damage to their home, and they've had to be displaced into an RV."
Ashworth has organized several volunteer cleanups in Sandy Creek. She said the work has never been more important, especially as winter weather approaches.
"Seeing these people in tears with leaking roofs .. and plumbing that doesn't work ... it's just such a struggle to see them lose everything, lose family members too, and still have to think of how they're going to manage rebuilding," she said.
Ashworth is determined to continue the work.
"I know there [are] many disasters in the world, and that's what's quite scary for these people. They know that help will disappear," she said. "So I think that's why I've kept showing up."
Preparing for Thanksgiving
Ashlee Willis, who normally hosts Thanksgiving on the farm, said she and her family will be joining Ashworth and her husband at their home for Thanksgiving dinner this year. They plan to bring their famous bacon-wrapped turkey legs.
"That's our usual go to for Thanksgiving and some side dishes," Willis said. "They're going to provide the space, and we're going to do our best to pretend that this isn't our life for a day."
Despite all of the loss and pain she has endured this year, Willis knows exactly what she's thankful for this holiday season.
"I still have all of my family," she said. "Not everyone out here was so lucky … yeah, we lost everything, but it was just stuff, you know? I'm just really thankful that my family is still alive."
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