AUSTIN (KXAN) — As many residents work to rebuild after devastating floods ripped through Central Texas, roughly 100 others painstakingly wait for closure, as their loved ones remain missing.
Sherry McCutcheon had already learned her mother and brother are among those found dead. Another brother, Gary, is still missing.
“We want our brother back. We got to send them all to heaven together,” McCutcheon said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott visited the Big Sandy Creek area in western Travis County Monday, the area where McCutcheon’s family was swept away. He stressed the importance of bringing closure to families like hers, but also said the identification process can take time.
“Sometimes it does require using DNA testing to identify who they are and identify who their family is to make sure that we identify who their family is…sometimes that takes a few days to complete that process,” Abbott said.
Travis County search continues
Three people are still missing in Travis County.
Specialized teams from Tuscaloosa, Alabama searched Wednesday near Jones Brothers Park in Jonestown, Texas, helping Travis County’s search for those still missing. Crews from all over the country helped Texas counties with that work.
Near the mouth of Lake Travis, two creeks — Big Sandy Creek and Cow Creek — both need to be searched all the way to the lake. That’s happening by foot, boat and air.
“We have to do each side of the creek several times to make sure that they’re finding everything there. And then it’s two of those creeks,” Travis County Judge Andy Brown said.
Those creeks are each about 20 miles long, so the county urged patience as those specially trained crews check, and double check, for anyone who may still be in the rubble.
“If you’re up in the neighborhood you would not see these teams here but the fact is that because of the way the flood worked, a lot of the things that were in the neighborhood got washed all the way down here to the lake so they have to search that entire area,” Brown said.
Sections of Lake Travis, including upstream of Sandy Creek Park, have been closed to recreational activities as a result of that search effort.
“That’s really to let these search teams do what they need to do, they have found some things in this area pretty close to the lake. And also there’s still a debris field that hasn’t yet gone into the lake. We are hoping that we can get that debris cleared out after the search teams are done,” Brown said.