u/AnimuX

Just for those who are focused hard on social media, and maybe have been all of this time, but who need a better outlet for health and well being...

 

The Kerrville website has linked to a network of non-profits known as Kerr Together for emotional and mental health support (and more).

 

 

> Kerr Together Long-Term Recovery Group (KTLRG) is a collaborative network of nonprofit organizations, faith-based partners, local governments, and private-sector stakeholders working together to support long-term recovery efforts in Kerr County and Comfort, Texas. Formed in response to the July 4, 2025 disaster, Kerr Together exists to ensure that recovery is coordinated, equitable, and sustainable for the businesses, individuals, families, and communities we serve.

>

> Together, our work is strengthening community resilience, reducing duplication of services, and ensuring resources are deployed where they are needed most.

>

> Kerr Together is the community-recognized coordinating body for long-term recovery in Kerr County & Comfort — bringing partners together to serve disaster-impacted households and businesses and restore community assets with purpose and accountability.

 

 

> Mental Health Support

> The flood’s impact isn’t only physical. Stress, grief, sleep problems, and anxiety are common after disaster. This hub connects Kerr County residents with immediate crisis help and steady, long-term support, guided by the Emotional & Spiritual Care Working Group.

 

> Immediate Crisis Support (24/7)

> If you or someone you know is in immediate emotional distress or crisis, please use these services:

> * 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988, or chat online (24/7). Trained counselors provide free, confidential help nationwide.

> * Hill Country MHDD Crisis Hotline: Call 877-466-0660 (24/7). Local Mental Health Agency (LMHA) for Kerr County that can connect you to crisis teams and follow-up care.

> * Hill Country MHDD Walk-in Support: Call 830-955-1745 or visit 819 Water St., Suite 170, Kerrville, TX 78028. Monday through Friday, 8am – 6pm.

> * Disaster Distress Helpline: Call or text 1-800-985-5990 (24/7). Crisis counseling for disaster survivors and caregivers.

> * Kerr County Sheriff (non-emergency): Call 830-896-1216 (24/7).

> * Life-Threatening Emergencies: Call 911 (24/7).

 

 

Don't hesitate to call someone if you need help.

Don't rely on Reddit - talk to a professional.

https://legacy.co.kerr.tx.us/commcrt/minutes/2016/050916CC.txt

Monday, May 9, 2016

KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT

 

 

> JUDGE POLLARD: Public education is an important part of it, too. And it was pointed out to me, my wife and I were visiting somebody in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, back when they had all the tornadoes up there. And you can hear the air raid sirens. We could hear them inside the house. And the people we were visiting with there in Richardson and I said what is that, you know, what does that mean. They're not close to a river or anything like that. They said I don't know. And we just sat around fat, dumb and happy. So I think public education is a part of it, you know.

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Public education is a major part of it and this can help do that. These grants can and the funding can. Because I know Judge Pollard probably would, Buster probably does, but I doubt -- Bob may since you grew up here. I doubt if there's very many people in this County anymore that remember as I do, and several of us in here may, watching logs come up on top of the big bridge here at Sidney Baker during the flood in '78. '77, '78.

 

> JUDGE POLLARD: Absolutely.

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: People don't realize what this river can do and how you quickly it can do it. That was a big factor in the Hermann Sons disaster that we worked years ago that I spent all day in a helicopter. So we need to get it out. It's not like the Mississippi or a lot of the other rivers that just constantly come up slowly. You know this river in ten minutes can be up 20 or 30 feet.

 

> JUDGE POLLARD: Maybe people don't remember but in what, '32 or '34 flood where the River Hills shopping Center --

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't remember that one. You might.

 

> JUDGE POLLARD: I wasn't here either. But the River Hills Shopping Center had about ten feet of water, that area right there, had about ten feet of water in it. So that whole shopping center would have been under water then.

 

> COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well at that time the Sheriff was missing. The bridge in Center Point across on highway 480, which is I don't know --

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I've seen that.

 

> COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- 35 or 40 feet above the river. Water went over the bridge.

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, I've seen that bridge go under water three or four times just since I've been with the Sheriff's office, okay.

 

> COMMISSIONER REEVES: In '78 we lost the bridge on Junction Highway at Goat Creek.

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Even my dad was the one they told to look in the rearview mirror, because right when he crossed it the bridge collapsed.

 

> COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need the education. Highway 27, large parts of it were six foot under water.

 

> SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We talk about Verde Creek and the Guadalupe, and a lot of people don't realize, that comes together in Center Point Estates, in that housing edition. Which back during '78 is where we lost about 8 people out of that housing edition if I remember.

 

(edited for formatting)

Some people claim the July, 2025 flood was an 'unprecedented' event.

History shows they're wrong.

 

 

The D'Hanis Flash Flood of May, 1935 - 22 Inches Of Rain In 3 Hours

After about two years of intense drought, complete with dust storms, rain finally returned to the Texas Hill Country with a vengeance in the summer of 1935.

Earlier in the month of May, Uvalde received over 12 inches of rain while Sabinal and Hondo recorded about 8 inches of rainfall each.

Then, at the end of May, what was probably an upper-level low stalled over the Seco drainage basin.

In the last 4 to 5 days of the month, Hondo recorded more than 13 inches and Sabinal more than 10 inches, with most of the rain received on May 31st.

12.5 inches at Lutz ranch, nearly 10 inches at A. Rothe ranch, and from 6 to 16 inches were reported at various other points for miles around the Woodward ranch.

The ranchmen corroborated that the rain on May 31st came down in less than 3 hours.

 

A circular tank at the Woodward Ranch, 10 miles north of D'Hanis, was empty before the flood.

The tank was 21.84 inches deep. It filled until overflowed with rainwater, also in less than 3 hours, starting between 4 and 5 A.M. that morning.

 

 

Seco and Parkers Creeks

Located between the two creeks, D'Hanis, Texas (Medina County) was in the worst possible position.

Seco Creek left its banks about 8 miles north of the town and merged with the also overflowing Parkers Creek to inundate the whole area.

At the Rowe Ranch river gage, north of D'Hanis, Seco Creek crested at 35.7 feet.

By 7 A.M. basements in the town were flooding with the water quickly reaching several feet high into houses.

Nearly every building in the town was hit, including many that had never flooded before.

A witness described the event:

> It seemed to come in great rolls and in a few minutes it crushed the windows, flooded the room waist deep, and it was with great difficulty that [I and my wife] could reach the second story up the stairway, so strong was the driving force of the current.

The flood reached a depth of 13 feet and washed many homes off their foundations along with railroad boxcars, automobiles, fences, sheds, and livestock.

Some roads, small bridges, and the area's crops were also destroyed.

At least a mile of Southern Pacific railroad track was twisted up and swept out over the highway.

There were only 5 drownings (four children and a woman) likely because it was a daytime event.

USGS would later calculate the peak discharge at the Rothe ranch, 11 miles north of D'Hanis, as 230,000 cfs (cubic feet per second).

 

 

East of D'Hanis floodwater backed up from a railroad embankment into the town of Hondo.

West of D'Hanis the Sabinal River rose 30 feet and damaged 3 miles of rail line.

Near Uvalde, the Nueces River rose 20 feet and the Leona rose 15 feet.

San Antonio recorded one of its highest ever rain totals for the month of May, in 1935, at 14.07 inches (more than 10 inches above normal).

 

 

Sources include:

U.S. Geological Survey

National Weather Service

"Flash Floods In Texas" by Jonathan Burnett

Some people claim the July 4th, 2025 flood was the largest and the worst 'unprecedented' event that ever hit Texas.

History shows they're wrong.

 

 

The 2000-Year Flood of 1954 - Hurricane Alice - Devils River, Pecos River, The Rio Grande

 

In 1954 Hurricane Alice formed out of a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico on June 24th. The next morning it made landfall in Mexico about 20 miles south of Brownsville, Texas.

In a historical first, the Weather Bureau began issuing official 24-hour track forecasts that year making Alice the first named storm to have its landfall announced a day ahead which gave coastal Texas areas time to evacuate.

The storm was just barely a hurricane with 80mph winds and didn't cause much damage on the way in. That is until the remnants of the storm, below tropical depression level, had moved up the Rio Grande Valley and later inundated south Texas.

It entered the "Core Rain" phase during the evening-to-early morning of June 26th-27th. In 36 hours, 35 inches of rainfall was recorded at ranches near Pandale and Government Canyon, between the Pecos and Devils River drainages.

The resulting flooding was ranked as a 2000-Year event (0.0005 percent chance of occurrence in any given year) and followed a severe drought.

Time Magazine labeled the storm 'Evil Alice'.

 

 

Pecos River

 

The Tom Everett Ranch measured 1,050,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) at the crest on the Pecos River at Pandale.

Near Comstock, the first Pecos River crest was measured at 7:30 AM on June 27th: 82.0 ft and 695,000 cfs.

The second at 1:30 AM on June 28th: 96.24 ft and 948,000 cfs.

(For comparison, the Pecos at Pandale USGS river gage is currently at 1 ft and 84.9 cfs)

 

 

A wall of water about 30 feet high rushed through the normally dry Johnson Draw to hit Ozona, Texas at 5 AM on June 28th.

Homes were destroyed and cars swept away. Many heads of livestock were lost. At least 15 people died. Three fires burned out of control because the fire hydrants were submerged.

It was noted in one report that church bells and sirens were used to warn the small cattle town but many people stayed to watch, unaware of the size of the flood.

Another normally dry gully called Sulphur Draw flash-flooded the town of Lamesa.

 

 

Devils River

 

The Devils River at Pafford Crossing later crested at 5:00 PM on June 28th: 34.76 ft and 585,000 cfs.

(At present the Devils River at Pafford Crossing is measured at 2.12 ft and 101 cfs)

 

 

Rio Grande

 

At Del Rio the river crested on June 28th at 9:30 AM: 38.25 ft.

Little damage was seen at Del Rio but Acuna, Mexico, on the other side of the Rio Grande, had severe property damage and the approach to the International Bridge was washed out.

 

The Rio Grande crested at Eagle Pass at 5:00 AM on June 29th: 53.51 ft and 964,000 cfs.

The commercial sector of Eagle Pass was flooded in 8 to 10 feet of water. Property damage was significant and many homes in low lying areas along creeks were also flooded but residents had evacuated.

The International Bridge was destroyed as was the Southern Pacific railway bridge.

The entire town of Piedras Negras, Mexico was flooded with trapped residents forced onto their roofs after the levee was overflowed. Adobe construction homes collapsed into an expanded 3-miles-wide flood.

"I heard hundreds crying for help in the dark," a witness from Eagle Pass reported. "You could hear houses collapsing, then screams, then nothing."

More than half the town was destroyed. As many as 153 or more (estimated - poor records of migrant workers) people drowned there and about 15,000 others were left homeless.

 

Later, the river crest at Laredo was at 9:30AM on June 30th: 61.35 ft and 717,000 cfs.

Some 200 blocks of the City of Laredo, Texas were flooded. A large portion of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico was destroyed. Houses and businesses miles away were also flooded as other creeks backed up.

Reports from the devastation at Acuna and Piedras Negras encouraged residents to evacuate in time and no lives were lost in either city.

The flood went 15 ft over the International Bridge, which was swept away.

 

The newly completed Falcon Reservoir was nearly empty and hydrologists had predicted it could take 3 to 4 years to fill.

The flooding raised the reservoir about 40 ft, almost up to its conservation level, in just 3 days.

 

 

Sources Include:

U.S. Geological Survey

National Weather Service

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Time Magazine

Some people claim the July 4th, 2025 flood was the largest and the worst 'unprecedented' event that ever hit Texas.

History shows they're wrong.

 

 

The 2000-Year Flood of 1954 - Hurricane Alice - Devils River, Pecos River, The Rio Grande

 

In 1954 Hurricane Alice formed out of a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico on June 24th. The next morning it made landfall in Mexico about 20 miles south of Brownsville, Texas.

In a historical first, the Weather Bureau began issuing official 24-hour track forecasts that year making Alice the first named storm to have its landfall announced a day ahead which gave coastal Texas areas time to evacuate.

The storm was just barely a hurricane with 80mph winds and didn't cause much damage on the way in. That is until the remnants of the storm, below tropical depression level, had moved up the Rio Grande Valley and later inundated south Texas.

It entered the "Core Rain" phase during the evening-to-early morning of June 26th-27th. In 36 hours, 35 inches of rainfall was recorded at ranches near Pandale and Government Canyon, between the Pecos and Devils River drainages.

The resulting flooding was ranked as a 2000-Year event (0.0005 percent chance of occurrence in any given year) and followed a severe drought.

Time Magazine labeled the storm 'Evil Alice'.

 

 

Pecos River

 

The Tom Everett Ranch measured 1,050,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) at the crest on the Pecos River at Pandale.

Near Comstock, the first Pecos River crest was measured at 7:30 AM on June 27th: 82.0 ft and 695,000 cfs.

The second at 1:30 AM on June 28th: 96.24 ft and 948,000 cfs.

(For comparison, the Pecos at Pandale USGS river gage is currently at 1 ft and 84.9 cfs)

 

 

A wall of water about 30 feet high rushed through the normally dry Johnson Draw to hit Ozona, Texas at 5 AM on June 28th.

Homes were destroyed and cars swept away. Many heads of livestock were lost. At least 15 people died. Three fires burned out of control because the fire hydrants were submerged.

It was noted in one report that church bells and sirens were used to warn the small cattle town but many people stayed to watch, unaware of the size of the flood.

Another normally dry gully called Sulphur Draw flash-flooded the town of Lamesa.

 

 

Devils River

 

The Devils River at Pafford Crossing later crested at 5:00 PM on June 28th: 34.76 ft and 585,000 cfs.

(At present the Devils River at Pafford Crossing is measured at 2.12 ft and 101 cfs)

 

 

Rio Grande

 

At Del Rio the river crested on June 28th at 9:30 AM: 38.25 ft.

Little damage was seen at Del Rio but Acuna, Mexico, on the other side of the Rio Grande, had severe property damage and the approach to the International Bridge was washed out.

 

The Rio Grande crested at Eagle Pass at 5:00 AM on June 29th: 53.51 ft and 964,000 cfs.

The commercial sector of Eagle Pass was flooded in 8 to 10 feet of water. Property damage was significant and many homes in low lying areas along creeks were also flooded but residents had evacuated.

The International Bridge was destroyed as was the Southern Pacific railway bridge.

The entire town of Piedras Negras, Mexico was flooded with trapped residents forced onto their roofs after the levee was overflowed. Adobe construction homes collapsed into an expanded 3-miles-wide flood.

"I heard hundreds crying for help in the dark," a witness from Eagle Pass reported. "You could hear houses collapsing, then screams, then nothing."

More than half the town was destroyed. As many as 153 or more (estimated - poor records of migrant workers) people drowned there and about 15,000 others were left homeless.

 

Later, the river crest at Laredo was at 9:30AM on June 30th: 61.35 ft and 717,000 cfs.

Some 200 blocks of the City of Laredo, Texas were flooded. A large portion of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico was destroyed. Houses and businesses miles away were also flooded as other creeks backed up.

Reports from the devastation at Acuna and Piedras Negras encouraged residents to evacuate in time and no lives were lost in either city.

The flood went 15 ft over the International Bridge, which was swept away.

 

The newly completed Falcon Reservoir was nearly empty and hydrologists had predicted it could take 3 to 4 years to fill.

The flooding raised the reservoir about 40 ft, almost up to its conservation level, in just 3 days.

 

 

Sources Include:

U.S. Geological Survey

National Weather Service

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Time Magazine