A man and his family from Hunt, at the epicenter of deadly Central Texas flooding, are applauding Samaritan’s Purse for their help recovering just days after waters ravaged their property.
“They had all the tools they needed, all the supplies they needed,” said Mike Lowe to The Dallas Express. “They knew exactly how to use every one of them. And they had a smile on their face.”
Andrew Metcalfe, program manager for Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement to The Dallas Express that residents are seeing “some of the darkest days of their lives.”
“We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” he said.
“Not only do we want to do the work of pulling out all the water-damaged material from homes, but more so we want to offer being that shoulder to cry on, that warm smile, somebody to give them a hug and just let them know they’re not alone in the midst of this disaster,” explained Metcalfe.
Lowe and his wife Laurie live near the Guadalupe River. He said his “grandkids love it, they go out there swimming and fishing and all that.”
Then the flood came.
The property is close to 5 miles downstream from Camp Mystic, where the floodwaters killed numerous girls and volunteers. Carson Conklin, Lowe’s son-in-law, told The Dallas Express Laurie called him at 3:56 a.m. on July 4.
“They were packing up and basically grabbing some emergency food and water, and running out the door, and getting in the truck to get to higher ground,” Conklin said. “I was on the phone with her for 45 minutes just listening to their live account of all the things they were seeing.”
They saw rescues of children and numerous first responders, he said. According to Conklin, Mike and Laurie live across from Camp La Junta, which was heavily damaged by the floods, but fortunately, no deaths occurred.
“There were a lot of harrowing stories of kids up on roofs being rescued,” Conklin said.
Mike and Laurie ultimately lost multiple buildings on the property, according to Conklin. He said that in the house, the water rose more than 10 feet high and into the attic. While the house is still standing, it needs to be torn down to the studs and completely remodeled.
“All their possessions are gone,” he said. “Her car wound up in the bottom of the river.”
When the flood tore through the property, it left all their belongings strewn across several of the neighbors’ yards.
“It took everything that was in the house and scattered it all over,” Lowe said. “There were places that were three feet of mud, and then there were others that had a foot of mud in them.”
Conklin said he was out evaluating the property on Saturday, the first day people could leave Hunt, since the crossings were flooded.
“If it was going to have to just be bulldozed, we didn’t want to waste anyone’s time or resources that could be used elsewhere,” he said. He determined the framing and structure could be repaired, so everyone agreed to start the “cleanup and reconstruction work.”
The next day, no one could work because officials warned residents that another “wall of water” could develop, though they said it was just a rumor.
“They came by with sirens and a bullhorn and told my wife and her family that were on the property that they needed to leave immediately and get to higher ground,” Conklin said.
So the first day they could start recovery was that Monday, when family, friends, and “a bunch of people from our church” went to clean up the property, according to Conklin.
“We got about three-quarters of the place mucked out because the furniture was in different rooms,” he said. “There’s just a ton of mud and debris. I mean, anywhere from several inches to a few feet.”
Conklin is an elder at Kerrville Bible Church, he said, and Samaritan’s Purse reached out to see if they could use it as an operations center. “We said, absolutely, we want to have you guys.”
Samaritan’s Purse showed up on the second day of cleanup, on a Tuesday, according to Lowe.
Conklin said he gave organizers the “logistics” of what they would need and what to expect, and then friends, church members, and Samaritan’s Purse volunteers went out and “worked all day.”
“They were great people,” Lowe said.
The group’s volunteers worked on the house until Thursday, cleaning out mud and removing damaged sheetrock and insulation, according to Conklin. This was necessary before remodeling, so they could expose the studs and spray them with mildew killer.
“They are extremely well-organized. They are just very sharp. They know what they’re doing. They’ve got experience,” Conklin said. “Their leadership is really good, from the crew level all the way up to the guy that I interacted with.”
He said he was struck by the way Samaritan’s Purse kept faith at the center of their operations.
“They have servants’ hearts,” Conklin said. “Their faith is obvious. We all circled up and prayed at our church before we left.”
One volunteer was a victim of Hurricane Harvey in Houston and felt “called to go help other people who had gone through this.”
“Other people had helped him, and he wanted to then turn and return the favor,” Conklin said.
Conklin also said the volunteers had a bright and “respectful” attitude, despite the demanding job.
“This is some of the hardest, nastiest work you can imagine,” Conklin said. “And they did it day after day after day, no complaining, nobody got tired.”
The group’s “efficiency and organization” stood out to Conklin. He pointed to their recovery vans as an example – he said all the tools were in the same place. “Any crew can take any van, and know exactly what’s there and exactly what tools they have and where they’re located,” he said.
The store and post office were like the “heart of the community” in Hunt, according to Lowe. He said the floods had destroyed both, and it could take three to four years before everything was cleaned up.
“It just blew the post office off the foundation. The Hunt store is just beat to a pulp,” Lowe said. “I don’t know whether they’ll rebuild that thing or not.”
But teams from Samaritan’s Purse are still on the ground. Conklin said he went to the church last Sunday night to check on recovery efforts and found “it’s full of volunteers and all the same people, same faces.”
“Please continue to pray for this community, they are enduring every day, and we have just been so blessed to be part of coming alongside them during this time,” Metcalfe said.