TEXAS — In her San Antonio home, Jean Bullock spends time on DIY home projects. Her crafty eye creating everything from small Christmas decorations to a fireplace mantel.
“I’m teaching myself to build, cut and saw, and drill and all that,” Bullock said. “I’m a thrifter and a scavenger, so if I see something on the side of the road that looks cool. It’s just stuff I find and put together.”
She’s been increasingly crafty over the last six months. It’s a good way to take her mind elsewhere.
“Your mind is on the project, the measurements and all the things, so you’re not dwelling on the other stuff,” she said.
Bullock lives an hour away from the Guadalupe River. The same river that rose over 20 feet in under an hour on July 4 in parts of the Texas Hill Country, claiming the lives of more than 130 people.
“It’s really gut-wrenching,” Bullock said. “I lost my mom recently, and understanding that if something came through and wiped everything away without any choices — I just can’t imagine how that would feel like.”
With her daughters Jade and Jordan, Bullock knew she wanted to volunteer. One slight thing holding her back was wanting to spend time with Jordan before she returned to Costa Rica, where she now lives. Jordan, however, wanted to help as well.
“I talked about volunteering, and she’s like, ‘I wanna stay for that.’ Okay, you don’t have to, and she ended up staying,” Bullock said. “I didn’t know my daughters wanted to go. And I just said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go,’ and they were immediately like, ‘When?’ And started organizing as well.”
Organize they did. Bullock and her daughters volunteered both in Hunt and in Sandy Creek. Their primary responsibility was clearing out debris, whether they initially understood a homeowner’s wishes or not.
“A team lead assigned us to a homeowner,” Bullock recalled during her visit to Sandy Creek. “She greeted us all warmly and pointed to a tree that was on the banks in Sandy Creek. We walked over with our equipment, and she pointed to the tree and said. ‘This base, it’s covered with sediment. I want you to dig out these trees.’ It seemed, I don’t want to say petty, but minor compared to things we could have been doing.”
Bullock, along with her daughters and other volunteers, worked at freeing up the tree. It was a physically demanding task, with Bullock hurting her back in the process. But she gained perspective.
“A local came by asking if we need anything,” Bullock started. “One of the ladies called the homeowner and mentioned that the homeowner loves her trees. ‘Those two trees,’ and she gestured behind us, ‘those saved her house.’ Two trees that were standing [by] her house, the trees held it in place, while the two houses behind her collapsed, and others, by the force of the water, were pushed over.”
Looking back, Bullock describes the feeling after volunteering as being grateful and humble to be alive and be able to help. In the moment, helping was all she focused on.
“Your adrenaline is pumping, you’re actually doing the thing, preparing for the thing,” she said. “But afterwards, the realization of it — you start thinking about bits and pieces of it, and things people said and things you saw. And then the things you saw on the news, but you were there and you observed this firsthand … it was just a lot.”
Bullock said volunteering at both scenes was mentally draining. Her daughters took a mental hit as well.
“Jordan talked about having nightmares afterwards and just imagining it. Jade is more matter of fact, she doesn’t talk about it, but it impacted her greatly,” she said.
Neither Bullock nor her daughters have been back to either scene, but they want to plan a visit to see how the communities have rebuilt since the Fourth of July.
Bullock occasionally talks about the mental toll seeing the destruction had. She mostly discusses her pride in Texas more.
“Seeing the convoys of HEB trucks, there were people from Houston who went to one of the places,” she said. “They take care of themselves… and it just makes me proud to live here and call it home.”