Kerrville, TX — A neighborhood overlooking a tributary of the Guadalupe River bustled with volunteers in muddy clothes and trucks hauling trash bags and water-logged appliances Saturday, working to clean up the aftermath of the region's second major flood in just over a year.
Early Thursday morning, the waters of Town Creek flooded a row of homes along its banks, rising at least four feet higher than the year before and damaging homes that were spared the year before. At least two of the homes had been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.
“There were 18 of us raised and born here, and I've seen all the floods, but I've never seen this come into my house. And it just breaks my heart,” said Rosalinda Torres.
The 65-year-old said she had just remodeled the home she grew up in six years ago.
“I worked so hard to bring my mom's house up, and this happens. But I'm alive. That's a good thing. I'm very proud that I'm alive,” Torres said. “I lost everything of my stuff. I don't even like to throw it away. I say I'm going to save it, but it's no good no more. Got wet.”
Now all that’s salvageable are items on higher shelves, including precious photos and the urn containing the ashes of the man she considered her husband, who died in May.
“He was sick. And thank God he wasn't here because I don't know what I would have done to get him out,” Torres said.
Last year, when a torrent of rain swept down the Guadalupe River in the early hours of July 4, 2025, Torres said the water rose along Town Creek just to the top of the fence line on the edge of her property.
This year, Torres said she saw the flash flood warnings on her phone and didn’t go to bed.
“I didn't go to sleep at all. I would come out every hour with the flashlight and check (the water level),” Torres said. "And then about 3:30 in the morning, I decided to go and check. And I checked. I opened the door, and it was all brown (water).”
Torres said she yelled for her neighbors, grabbed her dog, and they drove together to the closest H-E-B.
A few doors down, Miriam Hernandez was up late doing laundry and decided to keep an eye on the rising creek.
“It had already been raining for what, two days?” Hernandez said. "And so I looked out, looked at the creek, and just (said), ‘You know, I think I'm gonna babysit this for a while.’ And sure enough, it was worth babysitting.”
Hernandez said she woke up her 22- and 21-year-old daughters at 3 a.m. They packed important documents and left by 3:30. She said they were more vigilant this year, because last year she and her husband slept through the flood.
“We slept through it and had no clue, no clue,” Hernandez said. “We were hearing all the sirens and stuff, and my husband and I were just in bed, like, ‘Man, somebody, you know, must have been in a car accident or something.'”
Last year, Hernandez said the water missed them by about a foot.
Next door, Alma Maldonado said she was woken up early Thursday morning by a phone call. Speaking in Spanish, Maldonado said she fell into the water while trying to escape and got swept under.
“The water picked me up and twisted me,” Maldonado said. “I grabbed onto a metal bar,” she added, pointing to a pole next to her house then down to scrapes on her knees she got while trying to escape.
Two days later, a group of volunteers helped Maldonado clean up the mud coating the tile floor of her house and emptied it of her ruined belongings.
“They’ve all come to help me, not for money but for the heart,” Maldonado said in Spanish.
Sam Diaz, a Kerrville transplant who runs a handyman business, said he heard there was a need on this street and came out to volunteer.
“Last year's response was greater. This response was a little bit slower, not as overwhelming as last year,” Diaz said. “There's a bunch of needs here that are still being unmet: containers, backhoes, things that are kind of to pick up trash and dirt. You know, it's just on the streets at this point. But we've seen a lot of good response, and hopefully greater as the days go on.”
The Hernandez family was helped by a big group of volunteers from Kerrville Apostolic Church, where they are members.
“I was able to salvage all our clothes, which was our main concern the first day we came in. We grabbed as much as we could, and our church ladies have really been a huge blessing by coming and grabbing and washing and getting it taken care of,” Hernandez said.
Still, the house that’s been in her family for 50 years is pretty much destroyed, with holes in the walls and floorboards. Hernandez said she didn’t think they would try to rebuild.
“It was my grandparents’ on my mom's side and then my mother lived here, and then I lived here,” Hernandez said. “They've seen it flooded, but not like this. This has been crazy, crazy how it flooded this year.”
“It was a blessing while we had it, and it's time to move forward,” she added.
Torres, however, is hoping to salvage her house, but she’s not sure how she’ll afford it unless she gets funding from FEMA or charitable organizations.
“They don't give you flood insurance around here,” Torres said. “We live in a flood zone.”
The full extent of the power of the flooding can be seen in the debris piled up along Town Creek, and further down where it joins the Guadalupe River.
Vinny Mifsud, who owns property next to Francisco Lemos Bridge, said the debris left behind last year had just finished being cleaned up before the new flood swept a barge over the Lemos Bridge, knocking down branches and scraping bark off cypress trees several feet higher than it did in 2025.
“Last time there were Toyota bumpers and RVs and sleeping bags and tents. This time is not that extreme, so it's good not to see that everywhere, all over my property,” Mifsud said.
Kerrville is downriver of most of the summer camps. Mifsud said last year 12 bodies swept onto his land.
“I was there for the first body,” Mifsud said. “Me and my 16-year-old.”
“In a situation like that, the firefighters, the police, the rescue — they're all humans, and we all hug and we all cry together. And that's what makes this amazing— is the love that shows up after a tragedy.”
