KERR COUNTY, Texas – During the Hill Country floods, many people lost everything. Cheri Shine, whose home in Kerrville was destroyed, has prioritized seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
“We’re not sure that we’re going to rebuild here,” Shine said.
Shine has been a homeowner in Kerrville for 10 years, despite the weather, because of the people and the beauty of the Hill Country.
“We have rebuilt this cabin, this was our third time,” Shine said. “We moved in two months before the flood.”
Freshly rebuilt just before July, and now, one month after the floods, not even the foundation is standing.
“At 6:30 a.m., the first snapshot [on our home camera] was just a little bit of water on the ground, nothing that we would ever have evacuated for,” Shine said. “I mean, a couple of inches. Two minutes later, it was at the deck. That’s five and a half feet, and then the camera’s cut, and we knew at that moment, it’s gone. Our house was taken from here, and we think it disintegrated maybe two to three doors down.”
A home scattered in pieces miles down the Guadalupe, and still, Shine has found three silver linings.
“My mom passed in December, so I have her makeup case,” Shine said. “So, it’s one of those things where our Facebook page ‘Found on the Guadalupe’, something seems so stupid. Like, who cares about a makeup case? Well, it’s one of the very few things I have from my mom.”
The next silver lining was that Shine and her family were not home on July 4 due to an emergency.
“We had an emergency trip to Rhode Island,” Shine said. “We woke up to this, and I was like, thank God we were gone. We would not have made it out alive.”
Her most recent joy is the property she has still standing over in Ingram, Texas — The Fancy Finch Tea Cottage.
The tea cottage is a place that brings smiles to so many in the Hill Country since it reopened in August, about one month after the floods.
“When we decided to reopen in August, that was when we started out with the Kerr Kids that was the best way I could ever think of to start out, just to see joy and giggles and kids being kids again,” Shine said.
Kids being kids and everyone getting to smile a little bit more are the things that Shine said keep her going through a tough time.
Until things start looking up overall, Shine said she will be living in an RV while managing her tea cottage in Ingram. She’s also hopeful that in the meantime, county leaders will protect their neighbors and tourists moving forward.
“I do hope we get sirens,” Shine said. “The people who come in and visit our river truly are never aware because they don’t have that code red, and that’s [why] I do hope we get the sirens.”
Read also:
Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.