Kerrville was my hometown over four decades.
Since early Friday morning, when I first learned of the catastrophic Guadalupe River flooding, I've been in agony.
I've seen many years of different floods, but nothing like this flood.
I was there during the 1987 flood that was the record until now.
By all accounts this was much worse.
The loss of life is heartbreaking.
I don't think many of us anywhere will ever move past all of the children and adults who perished in the flood.
Hearing parents and grandparents talk on TV and online about the wonder and pure joy that their camper girls brought and the agony they have now that the girls are gone is overwhelming to me.
I have been to Camp Mystic several times over the years, including for Project Graduation when my sons were Tivy High School seniors.
The girls' cabins there are near the South Fork of the Guadalupe and I can visualize the terror the July 4th early morning floodwaters brought.
I lost longtime friends in the flood, including Richard Dick Eastland, who co-owned and was longtime director of Camp Mystic, and Jane Ragsdale, who co-owned and was camp director of Heart O' the Hills Camp.
Both lost their lives in the flood.
Eastland died trying to save campers. His body was found several miles downstream.
I spent the weekend talking to my two sons who grew up there and my Tivy High School friends who live in Kerrville.
As I talked to my sons and friends, they drew upon well-known places that were literally swept away.
Hunt lies across from the South Fork and is renowned as a gathering place landmark in the Hill Country, especially for Kerr County.
The iconic Hunt Store was destroyed, and much of the nearby town.
Up Texas 39 along the South Fork, a decades-long summer favorite place to dance, Cryder's Rodeo and Dancehall, is gone.
But, more importantly, the flood took lives, as well as heavily damaged or destroyed homes, camps, resorts, RV parks, restaurants, businesses, bridges and roads along its path.
Digging out of this devastation will be long, sorrowful, and expensive.
When floods occur in the Guadalupe River Valley – deemed by some meteorologists as the most dangerous river valley in Texas – the terrain funnels them between the hills and the torrents snap off huge trees, often cypresses, hurling them downstream with terrific force.
The effect is both deadly and destructive.
This flood also pushed houses, RVs, heavy trucks and cars downstream.
The Kerr County Sheriff's said that more than 400 first responders from 20 agencies around the state came to help in search and rescue missions.
There's already lots of finger pointing going on.
Kerr County officials say no one had any idea the flood would be this bad, although there were NWS early flash flood notices that were missed or unseen in those early morning hours.
I do hope something changes about installing early warning systems along the river.
The Matagorda County Sheriff's Department and other local entities collected goods for the Hill Country flood victims.
