By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
Churches in the Texas Hill Country opened their doors as flood displacement shelters on Thursday, taking in families whose homes and recreational vehicles had been swept away by rapidly rising rivers that killed at least two people.
At Calvary Temple Church in Kerrville, one of the churches providing help, volunteer Soyla Reyna spent hours managing a shelter that drew nearly 50 people through the morning, according to The Texas Tribune. They came seeking supplies and refuge after floodwaters tore through the region.
Elsewhere in the region, residents gathered in one another’s homes to begin cleanup, and shelters welcomed displaced families with hot meals and clean clothes, according to the Tribune.
The Christian relief group Samaritan’s Purse said it was deploying a disaster relief unit to the Hill Country, with staff and volunteer teams set to work in Uvalde County. The organization said it was basing operations out of Uvalde Methodist Church, with volunteers beginning on Sunday to help residents remove waterlogged belongings and clear mud from homes.
Chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Rapid Response Team were also deploying, Samaritan’s Purse said, adding that its teams would assess damage in Kerr County as well, following its weeks-long response in the region in 2025.
Southern Oaks Church in Kerrville, which helped lead the crisis response last July, has formed an alliance with the nonprofit United in Crisis and other local congregations to assist individuals and families hit by the recent floods. The church said in a statement to The Christian Post that it would activate a Disaster Assistance Center later this week to provide emotional care, emergency funds and disaster assistance to those affected in the Kerrville area.
Southern Oaks and other local congregations were also preparing to guide survivor families through the United in Crisis’ “Crisis Relief Shepherd” program, which pairs trained volunteers with individual survivors or families to walk them through recovery and meet their short- and long-term emotional, spiritual and physical needs.
The church said monetary donations were urgently needed, with funds to be distributed as gift cards, emergency housing, emergency transportation and building materials.
The scenes recalled the aftermath of the July 2025 floods, which killed 119 people in Kerr County, a county in the Hill Country west of Austin.
At least two people died in this week’s flooding, a little more than a year after that earlier disaster killed more than 100 people in the same region, Fox 4 reported.
The victim in Kerr County was identified as John Mark Steward, 65, who died after his home in Kerrville was washed away. His wife, Jennie, was away on a business trip to North Texas when the water hit, and she wrote on social media that her husband had been found dead.
A neighbor, Mike Eifert, was quoted as saying Steward could not cross from one house to another because the stream ran strong and high, and that Steward later reported his own house was falling apart.
Steward graduated from Westlake High School in 1979, where he played football, ran track and sang with the Madrigals, a student choral group.
Kerr County officials said Friday that no one else had been reported missing.
The second victim was identified as a 74-year-old man in Uvalde County, southwest of Kerr County, whose vehicle was swept off U.S. Highway 83 after he allegedly ignored warnings not to drive down the flooded road, according to police.
Authorities had not released his name, and his family lives outside Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave a differing account of a second death, saying a woman was killed when the car she was driving was swept away near Uvalde, ABC News reported.
Rain over the Hill Country prompted several counties to be placed under flash flood warnings, with rapidly rising creeks and rivers being the main concern.
The National Weather Service said a gauge along the Guadalupe River rose 32 feet in four hours and was expected to crest at a level close to the July 4, 2025, flood.
Abbott said the Nueces River near Uvalde set a record and, at one point, released water at twice the rate of Niagara Falls.
In the town of Comfort, the Guadalupe River rose to as high as 37 feet Thursday, and the Pedernales River reached 34 feet in Fredericksburg. Near Kerrville last year, the Guadalupe River at Hunt spiked to a record 37.5 feet on July 4.
In Burmenthal, peach farmer Russell Studebaker was quoted as saying the water was the highest he had seen in 32 years.
Abbott said more than 230 rescues had taken place since the emergency began. In a post on X, he put the overall response at more than 2,700 personnel and 1,500 vehicles, aircraft and specialized resources, saying they had helped rescue more than 270 Texans.
The Farm-to-Market Road 481 Bridge over the Nueces River collapsed after days of rain, cutting a link between the Uvalde area and Eagle Pass Road. The Texas Department of Public Safety released aerial images that showed the structure nearly submerged with a portion missing. Officials urged drivers to stay off the roads.
A bridge in Ingram, damaged in the 2025 Fourth of July floods, sustained further damage from the rising Guadalupe River.
The Comfort Volunteer Fire Department rescued a woman Thursday who had refused to evacuate her home, finding her trapped in the attic before lowering her in a rescue harness. Her husband was evacuated as floodwaters reached 2 to 3 feet inside the house.
The Houston Fire Department reportedly sent 12 specialized members to assist with the response.
In Center Point, post-flood renovations to the fire department were destroyed by the new deluge.