{"id":386858,"date":"2026-07-26T06:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/386858\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T06:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T06:04:00","slug":"south-texas-residents-cope-with-damage-after-july-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/386858\/","title":{"rendered":"South Texas residents cope with damage after July flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subscribe to The Y\u2019all<\/a> \u2014 a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CRYSTAL CITY \u2014 Gabby Perez painstakingly preserved her mother\u2019s home after she died 15 years ago. There was the wall of family portraits, the rosaries and kitchenware, and personal belongings that her late father, who had a knack for holding on to things, piled up.<\/p>\n

Only the house was nearly empty now. Most things were washed away in floodwaters last week. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hurt,\u201d Perez said, her head cocked to the side, staring at the hollow residence. Just a handful of portraits she managed to grab in a pinch survived. \u201cThat\u2019s all we had (of my parents), and we lost it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad,\u201d said her husband, Eusebio, who goes by Tres. \u201cIt hurt me seeing her going through the photos of her family. That\u2019s all she had left.\u201d <\/p>\n

A flood ravaged this decades-old, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood to the south of Crystal City on Friday afternoon, after the nearby tributary roared its way into that part of town. Perez and many other families scrambled to flee their childhood homes when the county issued an emergency evacuation order. <\/p>\n

\"\"Gabby Perez\u2019s bedroom in her childhood home in the Chula Vista neighborhood, damaged from the July 17 flood, in Zavala County on July 20, 2026. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"Gabby Perez recovered a ring and necklace that belonged to her parents, Adolfo Hector and Yolanda R. Perez, during the cleanup after the flood. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"A picture of Gabby Perez\u2019s late parents, Adolfo Hector and Yolanda R. Perez, that she managed to salvage from the flood damage. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

In the wake of the flooding, Chula Vista, a working-class, low-income enclave of Crystal City, has begun scouring the debris and examining the cratering foundations of the homes their parents had built \u2014 grappling with immense loss and an onslaught of new questions about whether they can afford to rebuild<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For swaths of Central Texas, it\u2019s become an all-too-familiar story. Rain pummels the region in the summer, oversaturating the soil and swelling rivers. The excess water floods the region, sending communities into disarray as they attempt to evacuate. In parts of Uvalde and Kerr counties, as much as 28 inches of rain fell over several days. Two people died. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know it was going to flood out like it did,\u201d said Zavala Emergency Management Coordinator Jesse Guajardo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know it would end up this way\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, the sun bore down on Chula Vista and the songs of crickets drowned out everything else, barely 24 hours since residents were allowed to return home. After a harried evacuation, many didn\u2019t know what they\u2019d find. Some were lucky to come back to minimal damage. Others lost everything. Residents shared in the shock, grief and the mounting unexpected expenses of a tragedy. <\/p>\n

Demolishing the home seemed the logical choice for Javier and Agust\u00edn Santana, whose childhood home was flooded. Agust\u00edn, who lives in a trailer home next door, evacuated with his dad, Juan, to a relative\u2019s place in town. Juanita, their mom, was at work. They knew to leave because Agust\u00edn\u2019s wife was monitoring Facebook for updates. And when she saw the floods breached the Crystal Ballroom, a storied venue for weddings and quincea\u00f1eras, she urged them to leave. <\/p>\n

\"\"Brothers Agust\u00edn and Javier Santana stand next to a pile of discarded items and materials from their childhood home in the Chula Vista neighborhood in Zavala County on July 20, 2026. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Santana family home in the Chula Vista neighborhood. The family is facing demolishing their home due to the water damage caused by recent flooding. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"Agust\u00edn Santana tears down a shed at his childhood home in Chula Vista. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"Blankets crocheted by Agustin Santana\u2019s mother, Juanita Santana, are among the items discarded from the Santana family home. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"Juan Santana sits outside of his home in the Chula Vista neighborhood in Zavala County on July 20, 2026. Santana faces demolishing his home after it was severely damaged by the recent flooding. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

The two brothers surveyed their childhood home, which their dad had built in the 1980s. The water tore through the foundation, they said. And their parents, 72 and 69, have no insurance on the house. They demolished another home to build this one. It is a whirlwind of new anxieties for the family, who are managing the dad\u2019s dialysis and their mom\u2019s diabetes. They had few answers about what comes next. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know it would end up this way,\u201d Juan said. \u201cWhat we built with so much effort.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"CarlosCarlos Ortega outside of his home in Chula Vista. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

Some homes were spared, like Amandina and Carlos Ortega\u2019s trailer home. Built on stilts and raised above the ground, the home did not flood. Nonetheless, Amandina and Carlos, 65 and 66, fled the neighborhood on Thursday at the insistence of their family, particularly Amandina\u2019s daughter-in-law, who had been monitoring social media. On Friday, they returned home to pack more things, but were met with a sudden rush of water and a helicopter overhead from which a megaphone ordered them to leave. <\/p>\n

The retired couple\u2019s expenses accumulated quickly, between hotel stays and cleanup. The home also has to be fumigated again, which will run them hundreds of dollars. Two cars stopped working. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were depending on our family for information,\u201d Amandina said. \u201cWe called the county, and they said for us to go on Facebook. I don\u2019t think we have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zavala County relied on social media for warnings<\/p>\n

In Crystal City, less than one inch of rain fell that week. The town flooded after the Nueces River rushed downstream with water it had accumulated in Uvalde County, jumping from 8 to 30 feet overnight from Thursday to Friday. Zavala County officials were relying on social media and door-knocking to alert residents. <\/p>\n

County officials established an emergency operations center on July 15 to coordinate rescue efforts across Zavala\u2019s unincorporated areas, including Chula Vista, La Pryor, north of Crystal City, and Batesville, which the floods reached, said Guajardo, the emergency management official.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the risks that we were addressing were because people had not evacuated as they were told,\u201d Guajardo said, adding that the evacuation orders issued that day were voluntary. First responders rescued more than 100 people, said Guajardo.<\/p>\n

\"CarlosCarlos Ortega shows the Facebook post his daughter sent on July 17 to him and his wife, Amandina, urging them to evacuate. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

County officials deployed their first mandatory evacuation on Friday for residents of Chula Vista, Guajardo said. The county mostly relied on social media to alert residents, while the sheriff\u2019s office sent personnel to the neighborhood. <\/p>\n

Guajardo said most were notified with ample time before the floods reached Chula Vista, but referred questions surrounding the timing to the sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office on Tuesday declined to answer questions, saying he\u2019d issue a press release on social media. County Judge Jesse Gonzalez also declined to answer questions Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The river damaged 183 properties. Nearly half of those were reported as unlivable by their owners, Guajardo said. And the county, he added, has exceeded the federal government\u2019s available funds in its first disaster declaration.<\/p>\n

Rebuilding will take time, money<\/p>\n

Families in Chula Vista remain unsure about how to start rebuilding their community.<\/p>\n

Residents here are either retired or rely on a single source of income, such as Social Security payments or disability benefits. Others rely on their family members, many of whom are hundreds of miles away. Financial relief could be on the horizon as the federal government gathers information on the extent of the damage, but those payments are still far off. <\/p>\n

Perez, whose house was swept by the floods, is taking days off from her job at a telemarketing company, where she works in billing. Since authorities reopened the area on Sunday, Perez and her family have spent hours cleaning up, missing work. They\u2019ve also tried to help other families, at one point cooking 75 burgers to pass out. <\/p>\n

\"\"An aerial view of Espantosa Creek, a split-off of the Nueces River, next to the Chula Vista neighborhood in Zavala County. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"The Espantosa Creek, still swollen from the flooding, on July 20. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\"\"A sign pointing to flood relief supplies in Crystal City, Texas on July 21. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

There\u2019s much left. She still has to clean out a room full of her dad\u2019s things, which she hasn\u2019t worked up the courage to do. She does not get paid for the days she\u2019s not working. The family is unsure how they\u2019ll afford to fix the house or help her brother, who is partially disabled and lives in the house. They launched a GoFundMe<\/a> to take donations. So far, people have donated $310. <\/p>\n

While they\u2019re relieved no one died, they\u2019re still reckoning with the structural damages. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy nobody was hurt,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s sad, it\u2019s heartbreaking, to see all this.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"A sign thanking first responders on a cross in the Chula Vista neighborhood on July 21, 2026. Brenda Baz\u00e1n for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Facebook has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subscribe to The Y\u2019all \u2014 a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8648,27,29,28,75216],"class_list":["post-386858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crystal-city","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-zavala-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386858","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=386858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}