{"id":383555,"date":"2026-07-23T07:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/383555\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T07:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:11:20","slug":"kerrville-extends-flood-disaster-declaration-indefinitely-as-residents-press-for-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/383555\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerrville extends flood disaster declaration indefinitely as residents press for aid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KERRVILLE, TX &#8211; The City of Kerrville has extended its disaster declaration after flood waters ripped through parts of the city last week.<\/p>\n<p>Community members showed up to city hall with questions about the immediate next steps as they work to rebuild their homes, and their lives.<\/p>\n<p><p>Community members showed up to city hall with questions about the immediate next steps as they work to rebuild their homes, and their lives.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Many Kerrville residents are trying to find their footing after last week&#8217;s heavy flooding. As they clean out what\u2019s left of their homes; they\u2019re turning to the city to find out what happens next.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need help quicker because this happened a week ago, and&#8230; some people are still homeless,&#8221; said Julie Casteel, who showed up to the meeting in support of her neighbors. &#8220;Some people have \u2014 their homes were completely swept off. They were just asking for swift help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nearly one week since flood waters rose again in Kerrville, homeowners with flood damage are looking for the starting line. Many of them showed up to Wednesday&#8217;s meeting in hopes of answers on how to rebuild what they lost.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We support your efforts to do whatever is necessary to get these residents Immediate help,&#8221; one woman said during public comment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we heard today was people saying, what&#8217;s our next step? How can we go for help?,&#8221; Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said. &#8220;We have set up something called &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/kerrtogether.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kerr Together<\/a>&#8216;. It&#8217;s a long-term recovery group, and they have trained caseworkers that help you navigate all the available help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a network that was created after the 2025 floods. It offers resources like non-profit assistance, or help registering damage with the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) to those who need it.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Joe Herring  Jr. extended a disaster declaration signed last week at the peak of flooding.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That disaster declaration says &#8216;we need help.&#8217; It can only last for six, seven days,&#8221; Mayor Herring explained. &#8220;Today I asked my council to extend it. Well, basically indefinitely.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s not a permanent solution for some.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t received any kind of help. just us as neighbors doing it all ourselves,&#8221; Elizabeth Ayala said directly to the council.<\/p>\n<p>Ayala and her cousin, Tony Vela,  came to advocate for their families.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because neither of our parents are able to live in their homes and, you know, they lost pretty much everything,&#8221; Vela said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[The city is] helping, but we&#8217;ve completed all the forms,&#8221; Ayala said. &#8220;We completed what we had to do on our part for them. But we&#8217;re not getting any more answers. Where do we go from here?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now they&#8217;re calling on the state to step in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need the governor, like we need everybody to be on the same page,&#8221; Ayala said. &#8220;We need help. The city&#8217;s helping, but we need higher people up to help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Herring is encouraging people to take full advantage of resources through \u201cKerr Together\u201d as he works with state leaders to secure more help for those who need it.<\/p>\n<p>Several<a href=\"https:\/\/gofund.me\/8dc9a196a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> GoFundMe<\/a> pages are set up to help families in the meantime. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KERRVILLE, TX &#8211; The City of Kerrville has extended its disaster declaration after flood waters ripped through parts&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-383555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}