Survivors of the July 4 Guadalupe River flooding recall harrowing escapes and lost homes, urging lawmakers to release emergency recovery funds.
Neighbors describe clinging to trees, swimming to safety and losing homes as they call on lawmakers to release emergency fundsThe true terror of what happened on July 4 lives in the memories Jackie Burton has relived in the two months since.
“First, I heard an alert on my phone, but I went back to sleep because there are always alerts. And then I woke up to water,” said Burton. It was around 4 a.m. when Burton said she alerted her roommates, a coworker and his girlfriend, who was six months pregnant.“She called 911 and they told her to get to higher ground, and we opened the door and we’re like, there is no ground,” she said. Within minutes, Burton said, water filled the mobile home. As furniture began to float, she said there was nowhere to go but out. “He told her, you know, ‘We’re jumping. Let’s go.’ And I just heard her scream, and then they didn’t answer me, so I was scared they died. And right after that, I’m just standing there holding my dog, and we just kind of floated out the door,” said Burton.She caught the branches of a cypress tree as a large log wedged them in from behind. She was clinging on when she said her right boot slipped, and the real nightmare began. “I thought if I just let go really quick, that I could just get my boot on, you know. As soon as I let go with my right hand. I lost Jack. I lost my bag, my flashlight, and the boot. I lost everything,” she said.She waited alone for two hours before the water receded, and neighbors were able to pull her from the tree. They never found Jack, but her cat, Monkey, was alive and perched in the wreckage of her home. Everything else was a complete loss. “The hardest question is what do you need, because my whole world was ripped out from under me. I remember walking around thinking, I have my cat and a bottle of water. The clothes I was wearing weren’t even mine, because they were dry clothes a lady gave to me, you know?” said Burton.“The two homes here, the people who were there had to swim out of them,” said Kylie Nidever.Nidever is now advocating for those who weren’t as lucky. She said it’s been neighbors helping neighbors and volunteer groups showing up to muck out the waterlogged homes.“I have met no local officials in Hunt or in my neighborhood,” she told the special committee. “Texans are showing up for each other every day. Now it’s time for our elected leaders to do the same. Please use the authority you already have to release emergency funds and make this session about flood recovery and nothing else.” “We need more scientists, more data collected, we need to be armed with the information so that hopefully this won’t happen again. And there obviously needs to be more regulations in place to keep people safe. Common-sense things like camp guidelines about safety,” said Nidever.Burton said her landlord won’t allow anyone to come back to the mobile home lot she lived on in Ingram.For now, she’s living with a friend. She passed on a motor home she was gifted to another survivor.Standing amid the destruction, she said Guadalupe is still the best place she’s lived.“The support, the generosity and kindness have been equally matched by the horror and terror that I went through,” she said.
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