Floodwaters devastated Blue Oak RV Park in Texas Hill Country, leaving destruction and displacing 28 RVs. Owner Lorena Guillen recounts the tragic events.
KERRVILLE, Texas — Destruction is seen everywhere at Blue Oak RV Park. It is one of the three campsites that the deadly Texas Hill Country flood waters tore through.
Owner Lorena Guillen tells KHOU 11’s Amanda Henderson that she and her husband bought the place for retirement four years ago. When you walk through and look at the trees, you see parts of the bark missing. Guillen said that it was from cabins at the next camp slamming against the trees when they were carried away.
Every step Guillen takes is a devastating reminder of her reality.
“[Blue Oak RV Park]… it was everything,” Guillen said.
She took KHOU 11 crews safely through her campground up to the edge, where the water was flowing below us. Water, she said, wasn’t supposed to be in that area of the park. A stunning reminder of just how much the floods came through the area.
Guillen and her husband own the campground. It is one of three campsites sitting next to each other that were torn apart, Friday morning.
“There was screaming. There was so much screaming… you know,” Guillen said.
Guillen said she walked from her nearby home to the Guadalupe River at 2:30 Friday morning as it was raining.
“I was checking the gauges and it was perfect. There was nothing to indicate there was going to be a flood. I called the Sheriff’s Department but they didn’t have that information. There was no information. Nobody knew this was happening at that time,” Guillen said.
An hour later, rescue lights woke her up and she ran outside with her husband to see some of the 28 RVs parked at their campsite, beginning to float away.
“We just started banging on doors and people were trying to get their belongings and we said, ‘there’s no time you need to go’,” Guillen recalled.
The water rose more than 20 feet, getting inside her nearby restaurant, Howdy’s Bar and Chill. Guillen said tragically, one family didn’t make it to safety.
“The rescue team couldn’t get to the family. They tried so hard. They had two boats. It was the right team for the right thing and they couldn’t,” Guillen said.
Now, Guillen stands at her campsite with us.
“Hey guys, thank you,” Guillen said.
She thinks the volunteers who are helping with the cleanup, as she now wonders how to help her employees.
“I don’t have work for them. How are they going to pay their bills,” Guillen asked.
We took that concern to the officials.
“They’ve been having people reach out about their bills and they’re terrified in the middle of all of this, they’re going to get cut off or evicted,” Henderson asked.
“We are working through everything right now. You know, currently our biggest focus is to make sure we get families reunited with their loved ones. We are not going to stop until we get those families reunited,” Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.
One of the employees she told us about is a man by the name of Julian Ryan. We interviewed his family Friday evening after they told us he died while saving his mom, fiancé and children in the floods. She asked everyone to please support his family with the GoFundMe that has been family approved,