Jaque White, a mother of five, stopped her minivan on Friday not far from a pile of debris next to the Guadalupe River and surveyed the damage. She called her children out of the vehicle, then took a closer look and snapped a photo of the devastation.
Just a week ago, she somehow managed to evacuate all her children from the small cabin near this spot where they had lived since her divorce three years ago -- "our safe space," she called it -- and lived to tell the story. It is not lost on her that the Fourth of July floods in Central Texas have been among the deadliest for children, killing dozens, many of them girls from Camp Mystic, and more than 120 people overall. Scores are still missing.
"I can't imagine what would have happened if I had not evacuated on time," Ms. White said. "My children are my life."
A week later, it was time, she thought, for the family of six to take the somber pilgrimage to a rural road in Kerr County, Texas, to see what was left. She stepped tentatively into their cabin and tried to assess what could be salvaged. Her children, ages 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13, followed her, each one running to the rooms they share, and inspected their damaged toys, dolls and sports gear.
Ms. White took a deep breath. The furniture, now in the pile of debris, was gone, as was most of their clothes. The cabin had drifted some 20 feet away from its moorings and had a strong mold smell. "We won't be able to return here for a while," she said.
But, she added, "at least the cabin is still standing."
The morning of the Fourth of July unfolded like most others. Ms. White woke up at around 6 a.m. and got dressed for her job as a home attendant as her children slept soundly. It was raining outside, and when she looked out the window, the river in the area between Center Point, Texas, and Comfort, Texas, looked placid. That changed in a matter of minutes.
Upriver, the Guadalupe's rising waters had been causing havoc for hours, sweeping away entire neighborhoods, campers and trailer parks.
Ms. White said she had put her phone on airplane mode overnight so as not be interrupted by messages. But even when she checked the Facebook page of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department, she was not worried. Sure, in capital letters the message read "!!URGENT UPDATE: WEST KERR COUNTY FLOODING!!" But in lowercase, the page had a milder entreaty that to her did not seem pressing: "Stay safe, stay aware, and be ready to act quickly if needed."
She had planned for her 71-year-old mother, Carol Chambless, to watch her children. But before Ms. White left for work, a firefighter knocked on her door and told her they all needed to evacuate.
Ms. White texted Tiffany Tripson, 42, , her sister, photos of the Facebook warnings, who urged her to take no chances.
"OMG yeah get outta there!"
the sister replied.
“I woke up the kids” and told them they all had to leave now, Ms. White recalled.
The children, still sleepy, followed her to her red minivan, and she drove away as water kept rising.
About 10 minutes later, she learned, the cabin had been knocked off its risers.
“If the fire department had not come out, I don’t know,” she said. “I would not have left.”
Ms. White's mother, who lives steps away and also evacuated, said that while flash floods have been a fact of life for people this side of the county, she had never seen the water reach 10, even 20 feet high. "I have never seen anything like it," Ms. Chambless said.
Ms. White is weeks away from finishing a nursing degree and plans to stay with friends and family until she can find her family a permanent home or perhaps raise the money to repair the cabin.
On Friday afternoon, she watched wearily as her children played near the Guadalupe, now placid again.
“We used to go swimming there all of the time,” Ms. White said, before coaxing her children away from the water. “It’s not the same anymore.”
Volunteers arrived throughout the day to offer a hot meal and new toys for the children. One volunteer even opened her ranch as a place to shower. Among them was Mollie Engelhard, 47, who arrived with boxes of burritos and water.
Before the children sat to eat, Ms. White's stepfather, Woody Chambless, 73, suggested someone should bless the meals. One of the volunteers, Tyrone Chan from San Antonio, raised his hands and the family put their meals down.
"Lord, we thank you for your goodness amid the tragedy and devastation," Mr. Chan prayed. "We just thank you that you are still good, that you still love us. Thank you, Lord, for these sweet people we are surrounded with. Bless them, Lord."
Ms. White said her children seemed to be handling the circumstances well. She has not explained to them why they needed to uproot their lives. "I don't want to stress my kids," she said quietly. "I don't know how they are processing this whole thing. They are resilient."
Ms. White's sister Tiffany said she has dwelled on the images of children who did not make it out alive. "Survivor's guilt you know?" she said.
Her sister's family "they are lucky ones," she added."They lived."