Newly released aerial images show destruction at several locations in Central Texas, days after flash floods killed more than 120 people and left about 170 people missing.
Many of the victims were in Kerr County, a flood-prone area where the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in less than an hour. Photos provided by aerial imagery company Nearmap show how the rushing floodwaters destroyed RV parks, homes and more.
Lorena Guillen, owner of Blue Oak RV Park, told CBS Austin affiliate KEYE she woke up at 3:30 a.m. on July 4 to rescue teams and a wall of water rushing over the grounds. Guillen said all 33 RVs and mobile homes parked at her property were swept away by floodwaters.
Aerial images show the grounds of HTR TX Hill Country Campground on the left and Blue Oak RV Park on the right. Guillen said at least five people were missing from her RV park, and dozens were missing from the campground next door.
“The cabins from the RV park next door kept hitting, kept getting smashed against the trees. And there was screaming. You couldn’t see much, but the screaming was unbearable,” Guillen said.
Images also show homes in the Casa Bonita community in Hunt ripped off their foundations.
Sisters Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were killed, along with their grandparents, when surging floodwaters ripped through the community. Their parents were staying in a different home at Casa Bonita and survived, according to the family’s GoFundMe.
Two miles upriver from Casa Bonita, community members rallied together at Hunt Store to serve free meals for survivors and volunteers.
Aerial images show tents, umbrellas and tables set up outside the store, where hundreds of free meals were given out. The images also show damage to the store, which was established in 1946.
“It looks like everybody’s in pretty good spirits. We’re definitely getting more encouraged just by being together,” Haley Lehrmann, owner of the Hunt Store, told CBS affiliate KHOU.
