Hill Country Flood Disaster: RV park owner describes the moment the flood hit

Hill Country Flood Disaster: RV park owner describes the moment the flood hit

Let’s head back out to Jordan Elder. She is out in um Ingram. Is that right, Jordan? Uh tell us where you’re at and what you’re seeing. We are at the Blue Oak RV Park right now with the owner, Lorena Guen. Um as the sun has come up, it the devastation here has become so clear. Can you walk us through um the night that the flood happened? When did you realize that it was going to be this devastating? Nobody could have predicted this much devastation. I uh you know I I started seeing the heavy rain around 1:00. By 2:30 I checked the water levels. I went all the way to the edge of the river and it was fine. It was perfectly fine. And uh called the sheriff’s department. I asked them. They had no information. And I went to I went to bed. Uh and at 3:30, uh the lights of the rescue team awoke me. And uh my husband and I ran over here uh and the bottom part of my RV, which is the second level, uh was completely all the way to the waist. I mean, people were trying to get out of their RVs and their underwear with no shoes, nothing besides their pets. And some of them lost their pets, too. Uh, and but by that point, uh, the rescuers were trying to get a family of five that were stuck all the way where those trees are.
Colton, can I have you show they’re on they were on kind of an island over here. Is that kind of where the the electric poles are now?
Yes. And over there is still the bathrooms. The family of I was right there within 10 feet of of the water having a beautiful time before the day before. I mean, it was just perfect weather, perfect everything for on the third and and then it just turned and and uh so um at 3:30 we when we saw the the the rescue team trying to get and they had two fast boats that were the right team to get to them and they couldn’t. The waters were rising so much it was insane. We had about another 20 minutes to get everybody out of here and uh they barely were able to grab their belongings, jump into their cars in this on the upper level and take off. But uh 20 minutes later, uh the water was up a good 40 ft in this area and uh and it was just everything was gone. Every single RV and vehicle, it was gone. They were got washed away.
Do you have an estimate of how many RVs were in this area?
Yes, I had 28 up here and I had five on the island. Uh, and everything is lost. Um, everything’s gone.
Have they started to find where those RVs were ending up?
Yes. Uh there is about half a mile down the river there is a wall of about 30 to 40 vehicles all smashed together and uh just and they nobody’s been able to get to that. Um but there’s a lot in there and uh it was just very horrific night. Um, at one point you can see uh lights because it was pitch black, you know, at that time of the night. It was just so black and you could see uh the lights of vehicles getting washed off uh from up river and uh you can hear honking. You couldn’t see anything, but you can hear honking and you can hear the screaming. Uh the cabins next door keep smashing against our trees. Uh you can see the scarring of the trees and that’s where they were hitting, you know, that’s how high they were getting uh flushed.
These were the cars hitting the trees that was pulling the bark off.
Yeah. And and there the cabins from the RV park next door keep hitting, you know, keep getting smashed against the trees and and there was screaming. I mean, and and you couldn’t see much, but the screaming was unbearable. And uh so I mean we are one of the luckiest one because uh we only have five people missing unfortunately. Uh but I was able to get everybody. I mean we my husband and I were banging on doors getting everybody out. Uh we had the rescue team here because one of my residents heard them screaming at that, you know, in the middle of the night around 3:30 or something like that. And he called 911 and that’s the only reason why they were here so soon, so fast. Uh and at at one point the manager next door, she came on running here said, “We need help, too.” because they didn’t know and and and they they lost a lot of people. I mean, they had so many missing people at that point. Uh like close to 40 people missing just there in five. That’s 45 people in in a matter of one hour. So, it’s just it’s just incredible. I mean, I the force of that water was so insane. Nobody could got into it. Uh that my my resident that was the one that called 911, he was trying to get to the family and all the way to water all the way to his waist and debris hitting him and he was yelling, “Please throw me your baby and and they couldn’t and they got swept away and we we all saw it and we all heard him and and the person that was trying to rescue them um what ended up happening to them? He got out just with his clothes on. He lost his pets as well. And he had just moved in to enjoy the beautiful summer that we were having. The temperature was right. I mean, you have to understand Kville is it’s an amazing community, small town, but on 4th July, we go all out and we hadn’t been able to because of the drought, you know, so everybody was mindful of the fireworks and things like that. But
that this Fourth of July, a was the perfect weather. I mean, it was going to be in the 80s, 90s, and it was it had been raining, so everything was kind of wet already. So, and it was perfect cuz we could go crazy with fireworks. So, the everybody was so happy and everybody was in going to we’re going to have the best Fourth of July ever. You know, every restaurant had uh bands playing, everybody. and and and we were all full. I mean, there were tents camping along the river all the way to New Bron Falls. And what happened to them? I mean, there is no way to account for those people. I mean, I just I just don’t know what’s going to happen now, you know? I mean, I I I don’t know how, you know, we’re going to get past all this and and and and when everybody asked me, what what are you feeling? I’m like, I’m I’m I’m just want to know what now,
you know, like I have bills to pay today. Uh not in three months. I have a restaurant with employees that they need to work to make a living. You know, you think, oh, two, three days off. This, a lot of my employees live day by day and so do I. You know, my husband and I bought this property four years ago as a retirement plan, as our little piece of paradise, and that’s what it was. Has anyone from the city, the county, the state, have they come to visit you?
No, not at all. Not one single one. Uh, and that’s why, you know, I’m I’m I’m talking to you guys to bring awareness of the area. We need so much help. I mean, I’m I’m I I’m just don’t understand why we have so many military bases in Texas with people there right now. Why couldn’t they be here now? I mean, San Antonio alone is just an hour away. We have Lackland. We have Forsome, Houston. The Rio has a military base. El Paso. Everybody could have been here that day to help because yes, I understand the National Guard is rescuing and and and recovery, which is obviously essential, but you know, that wall of cars half a mile down here with 30, 40 vehicles, they have to look. That is part of the recovery because I know there’s bodies buried in there. We know that. I mean, every time you we try to get some of the the debris against the tree, we’re afraid that we’re going to find somebody in the middle of it. So, the clean up is part of looking to see what they can find. Maybe they I don’t know. I just I just think uh we could have gotten we should have gotten help a lot more because all the cleanup that has happened here. And believe me, it’s very clean now. They already dug up a car from my parking lot. And uh there was completely buried. Uh it was done by volunteers. I had probably about 60 or 80 people in here volunteering, helping. And that’s how we were able to to clean this much up and be able to drive over. Uh but but that’s it. I mean, we need we need the military. We need our military here to help us with this incredible disaster. I mean, I have u some of my customers are in their 90s and no one has ever seen a flood this m this in with this magnitude. No one. Not even the 87, the 98, the 2000 and whatever.
No, this is a 500year flood. So, you mentioned that you were out knocking on doors, telling people to evacuate. We were hearing that morning that down in Comfort there were flood sirens and alarms sounding to alert people. Is there anything like that in this area? No, there is nothing here in like that because um I don’t know uh how long I think comfort was I’m going to say lucky enough uh because we were already alerting the authorities at 3:30. So they knew there was water going that way. They knew it. So they had a little bit of warning uh more than we did because we had no warning. And then I just want to show people there there’s still water over here, but um you say this is not actually where the river is supposed to be. This is still technically drainage.
Yes, that is correct. The the the river is if you see that electrical uh on that tree, the river should be about 3 or 4 feet below that. Wow. So, this is all still draining. Again, we are at the Blue Oaks RV Park. Um there’s restaurants here. There were cabins here. Um we’ve been speaking with Lorena Guen, who is the owner. Um it’s it’s a very troubling scene out here. We’re going to continue um capturing this video for you. For now, we’re going to send it back to you guys in studio. Before we let you go, um she mentioned that there were 28 uh people parked at the RV park. Five were on the island. Um, was her park full for Fourth of July weekend? Um, is was the park full for Fourth of July weekend with people that were here? Yes, absolutely. Um, I had thankfully the other half of my um, guests that were coming, they were coming on the 4th. So, there were as many people as there could have been. Yes, that is correct. But I know everybody else was full. I was probably at um 80% capacity at that point with the ne the other 20% coming on on the 4th in the morning.
Well, thank you so much for talking to us. Um this is this is absolutely devastating. Um and thank you for your kindness and for for speaking to us.
Thank you very much. and Jordan, let her know that we will get her name to uh city and county officials to get her the help that she needs and uh your exact location so that they know uh where search and rescue folks can look um especially when she believes right there are people um downstream. Yeah, because there’s resources available. Absolutely. Resources available. The governor has already said that as much, but I’m sure they’re searching on search and search and rescue right now. All right. Thank you, Jordan.

Texas floods claim 51 lives; rescuers search for 27 missing girls amid devastation: https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/texas-floods-claim-51-lives-rescuers-search-for-27-missing-girls-amid-devastation-kerrville-san-antonio-mangled-trees-kerr-county-camp-mystic-guadalupe-river

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