When Lysa Hieber responded to help flood victims near Big Sandy Creek this summer, she stayed for more than a month – before losing her life. After years of putting others first, this was her ultimate act of service.
Lysa, 65, was a nurse and a veteran of the Iraq War. After helping with flood recovery in the community near Big Sandy Creek, outside the Austin suburb of Leander, she died on August 2, 2025.
“We are devastated that she passed away, but she passed away doing what she was made to do,” said her sister, Lori Hieber, to The Dallas Express. “She was somebody who put others first, 100% – always. It really was exceptional.”
Lori is the Chief of Risk Knowledge at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and resides in Geneva, Switzerland. Recently, she visited the community near Sandy Creek, where her sister assisted with the recovery efforts.
“Listening to some of the people who were on the margins of society, those who were most affected – how she came and made sure they had food and they had clothing, despite her health not being great, and the heat,” Lori said. “It was very moving to hear them come out and say she made a difference at their worst moment of their lives.”
Lifelong Service
Lysa served in the Air Force’s MASH Unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) in the Iraq War from 2004 to 2005.
“She served in a very unique role, because she was part of the critical care team that flew wounded soldiers from Iraq to Germany for treatment,” Lori explained. “She really took care of them on the flights.”
After Lysa died, Lori said she found numerous awards for her sister’s service, which she had never mentioned. She said the awards, for bravery on critical care flights, including one from the President’s office.
“I found that really extraordinary, because she was a single mother of three children while she was doing that,” Lori said. “How could her family not know that she won all these awards?”
After Lysa returned to Texas from being overseas with the military, she went to Veterans Affairs for medical treatment, which Lori called “negligent.”
“It introduced some bacteria into her bloodstream when she got an injection from the military facilities, and it damaged her heart,” Lori said. “She wasn’t actually able to do active service anymore, and that’s how she ended up becoming a nurse practitioner, then serving more as a volunteer.”
After the injury, Lysa worked in infection control at an immigration detention center until 10 years ago, according to her sister.
“She worked as a nurse in one of the detention centers, and had a lot of empathy for the people that found themselves in that situation,” Lori said. “She was phenomenally compassionate.”
Lysa then went to work in home health. There, according to Lori, she assisted elderly people who required chronic and preventive care. By that point, Lysa herself had experienced a stroke and a heart valve replacement.
“She didn’t have the same kind of strength that she had before because of her heart condition,” Lori said. “She continued to work, but that’s what she was focused on – supporting people in their homes with health needs.”
Lysa also continued to volunteer with the Red Cross.
Four years ago, Lori said she was working at the U.N. as a regional director in disaster recovery for the Asia-Pacific when Lysa came to stay with her in Bangkok, Thailand.
“When she came to Thailand, she didn’t hit the beaches. She hit the poorest parts of Thailand to find out what she could do for the children who were the most dispossessed,” Hieber said. “She stayed for a couple of months working in the slums. Who does that when they go to Thailand?”
There, Lysa volunteered at the Mercy Centre.
“We build and operate schools, improve family health and welfare, protect street children’s rights, combat the AIDS crisis, respond to daily emergencies, and offer shelter to orphans, to street children, and to children and adults with AIDS,” the group’s website reads. “Always together, hand in hand and heart to heart with the people we serve.”
Lori said she is hoping to set up a small scholarship in Lysa’s name at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, to save one child per year from the streets – providing the recipient, likely a girl, with a home, food, and education.
“It’s essentially an orphanage where she had volunteered,” Lori said. “It’s a simple gesture, but I think she would really like that.”
“She also became friends with a monk who was helping girls escape sex trafficking by giving them education as nurses’ aides. So she became quite focused on that,” Lori said.
“She was so beloved,” she said. “They were horrified when they heard that she had passed away.”
The Big Sandy Flood
After heavy rains, the National Weather Service began warning residents in Kerr County, west of Austin and San Antonio, of dangerous flooding early on July 4, as The Dallas Express reported. The waters killed more than 100 victims in the area, including 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic.
Floods soon spread across the region. Outside the Austin suburb of Leander, the usually peaceful Big Sandy Creek swelled in the early hours of July 5 – sweeping through rural neighborhoods, as The Dallas Express reported at the time, killing at least 10 people.
Soon after the flooding, Lysa responded to help the community recover, according to Lori.
She stayed there for more than a month.
“She obviously could have sat in her air-conditioned home in San Antonio, but when she saw flood victims needed help, she didn’t hesitate to go,” Hieber said, “even though it was atrociously hot and the conditions were bad.”
When Lysa arrived on the scene, she told her sister that flood survivors were relying on private volunteers to help with their recovery.
“What I was told by Lysa before she died is, ‘You wouldn’t believe what is going on over here, and I’ll tell you when I get back,’” Lori said. “That the people were not being taken care of, and that she was trying to mobilize more support.”
Locals expressed concerns about Travis County’s flood response in the community, as The Dallas Express previously reported. At the time, Leander’s mayor claimed the county barred the city’s fire department from responding. The vast majority of recovery efforts came from private citizens and groups.
“She really felt that they were not getting the help that they needed, and she was angry about it,” Lori said. “These were people who, when they lost their homes or they lost their livelihoods, were left on the margins. She was really advocating that they not be forgotten.”
During their last conversation, Lori said, Lysa expressed concern that the state was not doing enough to help recovery efforts.
“It’s heartbreaking, but that’s where her mind was the last day of her life – how do we get help to these people? The help that they not only deserve, but they have the right to?” Lori said. “It was the volunteers that the population had to rely on, and she was one of them. A big, strong advocate.”
In their final words, Lori said she told Lysa to go home. Lysa said she would – but she never did.
“I think it was a combination of working in the heat, and it probably put a lot of strain on her heart without her really recognizing it,” Lori said. “It came as an absolute shock to us.”
Lori and Lysa have another sister, whose husband was in a severe car accident on July 2. He was in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury at the time of Lysa’s death. Lysa had been planning to visit her sister and brother-in-law to provide support.
“She was going from the floods to go help somebody else when she actually died,” Lori said. “She sounded fine, she sounded strong – but she also never really complained about her health.”
Lysa never turned anyone away who needed help, according to her sister, including the many stray animals she adopted.
Lori said she has traveled the world, but never met anybody like her sister.
“There’s something very unique about somebody who is literally selfless, who always puts other people before herself,” Lori said. “That was her.”