The Hill Country We Love: Mourning Loss and Rebuilding for Resilience
Texas Appleseed is mourning the loss of life caused by the tragic flooding over the July 4th weekend, along with the rest of Texas. As we were preparing to publish this post, we were tracking new weather threats in the Hill Country, with many of the same communities that previously suffered damage again facing the risk of additional flooding. Our hearts are with the Texas communities that continue to suffer.
As a child, my experiences of the Texas Hill Country were imbued with the magic of summer. Every summer, my mother’s parents (who lived in Wimberley – I grew up in Hays County) would pack a lunch of fried chicken, put us in the car, and drive to Stonewall, where we would stop to buy boxes of peaches before we enjoyed our picnic lunch and drove home. After that trip, my mimi would transform those Texas peaches into every delicacy that a stone fruit could aspire to. Peach cobbler. Stewed peaches. Peach ice cream (a favorite).
My memories of those summer trips evoke the sweetness of a time in my childhood when I felt surrounded by love and safety (and good food). My deep gratitude for my best memories of childhood fuels my advocacy for Texas children: At Appleseed, we want Texas to be a place where childhood is sacred and every child and family have what they need to grow and thrive.
The loss of so many young Texans who were in the midst of creating their own memories of what should have become Hill Country summer rituals is beyond comprehension. The hard work of grieving is just beginning for the Texans who lost families and loved ones in Kerr County and beyond. These Texans will need the love and support of their neighbors, communities, the State, and the Federal government to recover from the devastating trauma they have suffered.
For Texas Appleseed, what comes next will be working to ensure that the communities hit by the July 4th floods — not just Kerr County, which already has a Presidential disaster declaration that activates FEMA and federal disaster recovery programs, but all 21 of the counties affected — have the resources they need to recover. Texas Appleseed has been working since the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita to understand and advocate for best practices related to disaster recovery. Maddie Sloan, who started at Texas Appleseed in 2007 as an Equal Justice Works Katrina Legal Fellow, has become one of the nation’s experts in disaster recovery policy.
Governor Abbott has already added a call focused on disaster preparedness and recovery to the upcoming special session of the Texas Legislature. We look forward to sharing with lawmakers what we have learned over the last 20 years about best practices.
Texas Appleseed also publishes resources for survivors and their communities, like the one we just published in May, focused on Homeowner’s Insurance Policies and Disaster Recovery and the disaster recovery dashboards that we created to help the communities that are hardest hit (but often overlooked) better advocate for the funding and resources needed not only to recover, but to recover in a way that makes them more resilient. And we will seek out ways to be of assistance to the communities hardest hit by the flooding.
In adulthood, my love for the Texas Hill Country has deepened and grown roots; I married a man who grew up in a ranching family in Llano. He is currently the Priest in Charge at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Lampasas. We are privileged to split our time between Austin and his grandparents’ old ranch house, between Llano and San Saba. So far, the city of Llano has been spared, but many families in San Saba suffered extensive flood damage. Texas Appleseed and I will be ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors and all the communities affected by these floods to ensure not only that they have the resources to rebuild, but to rebuild in a way that better protects them from future flooding.
Counties in disaster declaration: The counties included in Governor Abbott’s expanded Disaster Declaration include Bexar, Burnet, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Travis, and Williamson. The counties in the Governor's original declaration include Bandera, Coke, Comal, Concho, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Llano, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, Reeves, San Saba, and Tom Green.
Blog published at 11:30 a.m. CT on July 13. Photo credit: AP Photo/Eli Hartman (July 7, 2025)