Making Sense of the Madness of the July 4th Floods

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- The Guadalupe River Flooding that killed so many over the 4th of July Weekend, is surreal. It’s unthinkable. We always believe, it can’t happen to us. That it’s someone else's problem. Then it happens to you. A Family Member, or a Friend has passed away, or was injured in the unprecedented flooding will not only set back Kerr County for a good number of years; it will affect the lives of many survivors until they pass away decades and decades from now. In July 1987, in Comfort, Texas, south by east of Kerrville, 10 children were killed during a flash flood event. And truly the only events in Texas that can even compare to the loss of especially the children from the flooding, would be the New London School explosion of March 18, 1937; or the children from the St. Mary's Orphanage during the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. The death of a child is always a traumatic event in one’s life, and whether it be by flooding, or cancer, auto accident, fire or explosion, or shooting, many a psyche will be affected for years to come. And with the death of many children, and with even one child dying being one too many; the effects around the state will take many months or years to begin to heal. Some will blame God, saying; how can he allow this? But most certainly, The Almighty has given Mother Nature free will over the weather, just as he has given man the same ability over his actions.

County Judge Mark Keough announced on Facebook the passing of one of our Montgomery County friends, Reese Manchaca, who recently graduated from Caney Creek. Reese was with a group of friends in Hunt, Texas, when she was swept away by the flood waters. She had her whole life ahead of her, and now it’s gone, and not by her fault. When we were 18, the World was on our shoulders. We felt invincible. We planned for grand lives full of success.

No one ever plans for youthful demise. And all we can do now is pray for the Manchaca family to heal from this great loss in their midst. Reese was a beautiful young lady, bright, and was ready to prepare herself to take her place in our society as a young adult. Each Constable Precinct in Montgomery County sent a unit to escort Reese’s body home for burial. Reese was our friend. Our family. And we ask The Lord Almighty, to take Reese into his protected care, and help her grow in His Light.

Freak events happen for the good and the bad, and it's just a fact of life that whether it's a flood, hurricane, wildfire, tornado, or just driving to work or school, etc., we all face the same odds in life. No one could have predicted what happened over the July 4th weekend in Kerr County. When we lay down for the night, we expect to have a restful sleep. No one expects to be swept away by a wall of water. Very few of us can put ourselves in the minds of the victims during the event, whether they have perished or survived the ordeal. It’s chaos. There’s panic. And unfortunately, there are two roles in the fast moving event. You are either a victim, or a survivor. A survivors mentality is unique, and even amongst the victims there were special individuals with a survivors mentality, who did not survive. Essentially, they died with their boots on, and should earn civilian equivalents, to Medals of Honor. They fought against odds that were insurmountable thinking of others, and they accepted their fate. And they will be remembered. Essentially, what Kerr County experienced was their own Texas City Disaster.

And for those who were whisked to safety by camp counselors (who were essentially the first-first responders) or the first responders themselves, that night will leave an indelible mark that will go with them to their dying days. Being a PTSD event, it will in many cases begin a different journey in their lives, where you believe that you were destined for a certain life, but after such a traumatic event, the thoughts, and there will be many, will lead you in a different direction. Those who survived will now understand that life is a lot more than playing a silly video game or meaningless chitchat on the phone. Life is about being able to make a difference, and we take our experiences and are guided in a mission.

There is no doubt that the strongest youngsters who survived may take this experience and let it guide them to a profession, whether it be in fire and rescue, mental health, medical, charity, etc. It will trigger some desire that leads them to want to help in their own way. For others, vacations near bodies of water will be out of the picture. Still others may choose to sleep with the lights on, or even see water as an enemy. A lot of hurt was doled out that weekend, and it’s gonna take time to heal.

We’ve all been exposed to child death in some way, mostly growing up at school, the chances of one of our classmates passing away are increased, especially if you are in a large school district. In Montgomery County our chances are not as bad as inner-city conditions where different conditions with drugs, crime, or gang activity, are exposed to children. And most of us look at child death, and its possibility in our daily lives as nil. It’s not normal. It shouldn’t happen, but it does. Innocence always needs to be protected, and there are adult Heroes on the Guadalupe River who died trying to save children from being drowned. They gave up their lives doing the right thing. Their memorials will have their names inscribed in stone, honoring their sacrifice, when they were confronted with an impossible task, and did not live to tell the tale.

The families and friends of the dead, the children and adults, will need our help. Even with the passing of a mother or father, who have lived long and fulfilled lives; it still stings, and recovery can take months. The funerals of the victims, the family burden of an unexpected expense, will (for one funeral) take tens of thousands of dollars, and it is so important to donate to help the families with those costs.

On the 9th, Ms Sandy at the Montgomery Whataburger, passed out a flyer about Whataburger’s ‘Cups That Care,’ Campaign, which is for Relief for the Texas Floods. I immediately gave her $50 dollars without thinking, to buy a certain amount of cups. I kept one, and passed a few to friends at my table, and gave her the rest of the cups to hand out to Veterans and other meaningful customers. Sandy is a good judge of character. Whataburger is donating 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the 32 oz cups through July 31st, and other companies are forming their own efforts to help.

Texans have an inert desire to help. Families from all over Texas, and Kerr County citizens, and even in other areas, where the flooding damaged homes or simply washed them away, those people will need our support as well. No one plans for their lives to be upended by what happened on the Guadalupe River, just as no one planned for the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. I certainly didn’t plan for the tornado that hit my house a few years back.

When it comes to blame for the flooding, there is no one entity that has a full finger-print on the evidence. But, I believe it’s safe to say that the victims did not die in vain. Measures will be taken soon, to at least take actions where the topography that could account for walls of water downstream after such a cloudburst, will allow for warning systems in the future so that lives be saved along the Guadalupe River. I would even go as far to suggest cutting outlets (sorta like highway rest stop areas) above the river roads every five miles or so, for emergency evacuations to higher ground should the roads become swamped.

And we cannot forget the First Responders in their rescue and recovery efforts. For many, it will be a PTSD event as well, especially if they find a young innocent lifeless body. And we are talking about guys who have been on a battlefield, and seen the aftermath, destruction, and broken bodies, not thinking for a second about the enemy's welfare. But put them in a riverbed in a recovery effort to help bring closer to a victims families unimaginable hurt, then the emotions come hard and fast, especially if they have children the same ages as the victims. The rescue guys feel that hurt, and it’s gonna leave a mark for a long time.

The campsites and residents themselves will be back in time, but there will be a change in mindsets in terms of weather along the Guadalupe and other areas that affect the watershed of the river. Warnings with apps on our phones will now have to be put on at all times, and the luxury of putting your phone on ‘silent’ during the night may have to go by the wayside, in the interest of safety. Some may ask, was there an overnight watch in the camps? There may or may not have been, but even if there was, the lead time probably may not have made a difference. I’m sure the experts will note the inevitability of such an extraordinary rain event, but since there’s no recorded events of such heights before, doesn’t mean it has happened in the past, or it's not going to occur again in the future. Before the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the experts thought hurricanes unable to venture so far west. But we learned, and took countermeasures to greatly reduce the loss of life with the seawall. The same will happen with this incident, and perhaps encourage disaster planners to think outside the box, especially with the use of old dams in Texas. What happens if one of those collapses?

There is no doubt that Texas has taken an enormous gut punch. And it's even sadder that some have laid blame upon officials and the dead themselves for political gain, and it shows how little regard for life that leftist people have for others. I’m not writing this piece in the light of politics, but there are events that come about that we as a society just don’t understand, and this happens to be one of them. There is no common sense about it, and the thought of making sense of the madness of the July 4th Texas Floods does not register. The only person that can do that, is God.

Ruben can be reached at: ruben@montgomerycountynews.net