“Unbelievable! Again, for the second time. I’ve lived here my entire life, I’ve never seen the water go this high.”
That’s what Charles Holt, fire chief of the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department, could be heard saying in a Facebook Live video outside the department’s fire department shortly before the video cuts out at about 8:15 a.m. on Thursday, July 16.
For the second time in a year, the Texas Hill Country is being ravaged by catastrophic flooding caused by a severe weather system that has sparked tornadoes, flash flooding, and rising rivers from the Texas–Mexico border to San Antonio. Late Thursday morning, Holt told MySA that the Center Point fire station has been submerged by floodwaters and is no longer usable, just as the Guadalupe River is expected to continue rising.
“We lost my station again. Everything out of the inside. It damaged the building this time. We lost a SAR (search and rescue) trailer, a UTV and some other pieces of equipment,” Holt said.
The fire chief added that this year’s floodwaters have risen higher in Center Point than those of last year’s deadly July 4 floods. Despite the loss of the station and equipment, and the loss of electricity and internet service, Holt said he and his volunteer crew remain undeterred.
“We’re still strong. It’s not going to stop us. All my people are still going on,” Holt said.
As of about 11 a.m., Center Point firefighters and first responders were preparing for “another wall of water coming down the river” by staging airboats and other watercraft for more rescues. When asked how many people have been rescued in the town so far, the fire chief said so many that he couldn’t venture a guess.
“I couldn’t tell you. I can only tell you (about) the last one,” Holt said. But thus far, there have been no reports of fatalities or severe injuries from the flooding in the Center Point area, Holt said.
Meanwhile, outside of Hunt, Crystal Simmons, 47, her husband Lewis Dever, 49, their two teenagers, and a number of animals — including dogs, cats and donkeys — are trapped on their property located off of Farm-to-Market Road 1340 just a few dozen feet from the Guadalupe River. The only access off the property — a low water crossing — has already been submerged by the raging, rising river. Though Simmons told MySA she doesn’t think the floodwaters will get as high as they did last year, she was still shocked by just how fast the waters rose.
“When we woke up this morning, it was already 6, maybe 7 feet high, and within 30 minutes, I kid you not, it went from that high to 10 more feet,” Simmons said.
Simmons said the Guadalupe would have to rise another 40 feet or so before reaching her home located on a hill. If that happens, her family can safely get to higher ground further up the property, but they will be unable to leave until the waters recede. Like Center Point’s fire chief, however, Simmons is shocked by the magnitude of going through another catastrophic flood so soon after last year’s July 4 disaster that killed more than 130 people, including dozens of children who had been spending the summer at recreational camps in the region.
“It’s scary. Deja vu,” Simmons said.