Couple awaits news of friend after Texas flooding
The catastrophic flooding in Central Texas has left over 170 people missing, with families desperately searching for loved ones like Bill Huston, whose dog was found, and the discovery of a pill bottle belonging to another missing person highlighting the wide-ranging devastation.
KERR COUNTY, Texas – More than 170 people are still missing due to the Texas flooding disaster in Central Texas.
A Fort Worth couple tells Fox 4’s Peyton Yager that they tried to call their friend early on Friday morning, when they heard reports of a devastating flood in Kerr County.
They haven’t heard from him and are losing hope.
61-year-old Bill Huston and his RV were parked feet from the Guadalupe River in the town of Ingram, where Huston and his corgi, Sage, slept at night.
Russell and Melissa Offringa are waiting for an update on their best friend. Sage’s body has been found, but Huston is still missing.
What they’re saying:
Russell and Huston met 40 years ago at Navy bootcamp and then reconnected when the two moved to North Texas.
Huston stayed in Aledo before moving down to Kerr County’s HTR Texas Hill Country RV Park earlier this year, for a construction job.
“Bill thought so much of his dog. It was precious to him. You know the last thing he was doing was holding onto her,” said Russell.
“You have to have hope because what else do you have? But yeah, it’s tough.”
The campground is cleared as all the trailers and cabins are now gone due to the flooding.
“It’s the silent moments when the data is not coming in. You aren’t getting any more information. That is when it really hits home,” said Melissa.
Missing person’s pill bottle
Dig deeper:
Still unaccounted for from the fourth of July flood is one, Al Iorio.
His home in Ingram, Texas was washed away.
Five miles downstream, a Prosper woman, Elizabeth Copeland, was visiting a Kerrville RV Park and found this green pill bottle in the debris, prescribed to Al Iorio.
“Just something told me to go look up the name on the bottle and I did. The first post that came up on Facebook was a lady on Facebook,” said Copeland.
That woman was Iorio’s friend looking for any sign of him and Copeland met up with the woman in Kerrville.
“Closure could sometimes be a medicine bottle, or a jersey, or a t-shirt.”
Search continues
What’s next:
Days into the grueling search, families, like the Offringa’s, are yearning for that closure.
At the same time, struggling to process the likely outcome, wishing those along the river had more warning.
“There was just nowhere to go,” said Russell.
Huston’s coworkers in Kerr County are on the ground searching for him and providing updates to the Offringa’s. The Fort Worth couple actually went down to visit Huston a few weeks ago and stayed at the same RV park.
An RV park that is now gone.
The Source: Information in this article was provided from interviews conducted by FOX 4’s Peyton Yager.
Natural DisastersNatural DisastersTexas