At daybreak on July 4, Tim Boothby drove his black F-250 pickup into a storm.

As torrential rain fell and the Guadalupe River surged 25 feet over its banks in Kerrville, Boothby pulled up to the Old River Road RV Resort, sirens wailing.

“Evacuate! Evacuate!” he shouted through a bullhorn. “Evacuate! Evacuate!”

A volunteer first responder in Kerrville, Boothby sounded emergency orders from his own truck.  

He had not been dispatched by his chief from the Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department. He’d gone out to help his stepson, Travis Cranford, a responder from the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department.

 “We were limited on equipment, so some of us were there in personal vehicles,” Boothby said. “We went to wake everybody up and get them to higher ground.”

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He doesn’t know if everyone at the resort escaped. The following day, though, in another part of flood-ravaged Central Texas, Boothby discovered three bodies, two of them tangled in trees.

Center Point Volunteer Fire Fighters Travis Cranford, left, and Mike Gavit prepare to depart from the Center Point ISD donation station back to the volunteer fire department along the Guadalupe River. Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report

One week after Hill Country flooding claimed at least 120 lives and left more than 100 missing, Boothby and Cranford slog through mud and debris along the riverbank, looking for victims and personal effects, their mission aided by waves of South Texas volunteers, scrambling to help:

The San Antonio Fire Department deployed 22 first responders on July 4, including two teams in boats, for rescue and medical support.

H-E-B pledged $5 million toward relief efforts and provided on-the-ground meals, gift cards and supplies.

The San Antonio Spurs joined the NBA and the NBA Players Association in pledging more than $2 million for disaster relief.

State Rep. Josey Garcia (D-San Antonio), an Air Force veteran, organized volunteers to deliver supplies and partnered with law enforcement officials to form search and rescue teams.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller traveled to Kerrville to offer comfort and spiritual guidance to families, waiting for updates on missing loved ones. 

The Salvation Army, Eagles Flight Advocacy & Outreach and other local nonprofits joined numerous small businesses and individuals who donated supplies and money.

Locally, flooding has claimed the lives of two students and a lecturer from UTSA. A Cambridge Elementary student in the Alamo Heights Independent School District is among the missing. 

The Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas is providing “healing circles” for those impacted by the flood. More than two dozen local families attended healing circles this past Sunday and Monday. 

Ingram resident Jenny Etienne picks up donations at the VFW Post 1480 donation station in Kerrville, Texas. Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report

“The healing circle is facilitated by one of our grief therapists,” said Adriana McKinnon, chief program officer for the Children’s Bereavement Center at 205 W. Olmos Drive. “Our next healing circle will be Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. It’s a safe space for people to share their experience and how they’ve been impacted by the flood.”

A licensed professional counselor, McKinnon has a deep understanding of the pain the flooding has caused. “I’ve been talking with five different families who have missing children since Friday,” McKinnon said. “It really is very difficult.”

As thousands mobilize to help in any way they can, recovery operations continue, led in part, by numerous volunteer first responders in Hunt, Ingram, Center Point and Kerrville.

An impossible job

Cranford got a call at 3:30 a.m. on July 4. A family of five was stranded on the roof of their home as floodwaters rose dangerously high. 

“We tried to help but we couldn’t pass over to get there,” Cranford said. “The water was already above the hood of the trucks.”

Center Point Volunteer Fire Fighter Travis Cranford chats with his wife Britny Cranford during a short return to the volunteer fire department’s donation station at Center Point ISD. Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report

Another call took him to Howdy’s Bar & Grill, a Kerrville restaurant that bills itself as the “Best Hideout on the Guadalupe River.” Pulling up, he saw kids clinging to trees in the floodwaters, the currents too strong to cross.

“There was no saving them,” Cranford said. “We couldn’t put boats in the water. The water was too fast. There was too much debris. I pretty much just froze. I stood there and watched. You’ve got all this training under your belt and you think you’re ready. But it’s just nothing compared to what you face. That was hard. Once the water went down, we were able to start searching and recovering.”

A volunteer first responder for six years, Cranford works for Kerrville Wastewater Collections. He hasn’t returned to work since flooding began and doesn’t know when he’ll be back.

Cheryl Phillips, right, and Kite, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois from Carolina K-9 Tactical Search and Rescue, get ready to mount the SHERP ATV. Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report

“We’re out here until we find everybody that’s missing,” he said from his truck in Center Point. 

That means Cranford will be volunteering sacrificially, living without a paycheck for the foreseeable future.

“It’s not something I think about,” he said. “That’s what we’re here for. To help people. To get them back to their families.”

Tim Boothby, a volunteer from the Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department in Kerrville, is volunteering to help find missing people. Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report

Boothby, Cranford’s stepfather, drives a UPS truck. He, too, is missing work to perform rescue and recovery operations. It’s a miracle he can volunteer: Two years ago, a San Antonio neurosurgeon removed a tumor the size of a chicken egg from the frontal lobe of his brain. 

“I fought a heck of a fight with cancer,” Boothby said. “I give full glory to God for healing me. I’m grateful to be here doing what I’m doing.”

Boothby and Cranford spent Thursday with a small team in a SHERP, an all-terrain, amphibious vehicle, on a grim mission: looking for bodies. The day brightened when they stopped for lunch. An army of volunteers had arrived to serve.

Supporting the volunteers

First responders awoke Friday to a threatening forecast: Chances of showers and thunderstorms will increase as they head into the weekend, with a possibility of isolated flooding in Central Texas.

How much more rain can one region take?

Mercy Chefs and other nonprofits are partnering with the Texas Restaurant Association to provide meals and water to first responders throughout Central Texas.

Center Point Volunteer Fire Department vehicles are stationed outside the department’s temporary donation station. Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report

“The community coming out and helping us has been positive,” Cranford said. “It’s good seeing so many people bringing donations, bringing snacks, bringing diapers and clothing. A bunch of people have brought water. Palette loads of water. I think we have 200 or 300 people helping us search right now.”

Regardless of the weather, volunteers have assembled and moved into action. Nonprofits are bringing supplies. Small businesses are setting up mobile kitchens.

The Texas Restaurant Association is partnering with Denny’s Mobile Relief Diner to provide free hot meals Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Kerrville’s Lowe’s parking lot from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.

“It’s amazing what all these people are doing,” Cranford said.

Friday morning, he climbed back into a SHERP and headed out to begin another day.

“We’re still in recovery,” Cranford said, “until everyone is accounted for.”

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