Opinion

One year after deadly Texas floods, Hill Country proves grief can't wash away grit

This community held together because so many people refused to let it fall apart

By Austin Dickson Fox News

Published July 8, 2026 9:00am EDT

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Third-generation Camp Mystic mom says Texas flooding ‘hits home’

FLASHBACK: More than 100 people have died in the flooding and more than 160 are believed to be missing.  

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A year ago this summer, on July 4, floodwaters rose in the dark in the Texas Hill Country and did not stop. By morning, 139 people across the Hill Country were gone: 119 of them in Kerr County. Many were neighbors and friends; others had come to experience its beauty.

Like so many families across our community, my life was changed forever by the flood, and the anniversary we mark this month is deeply personal.

A year later, there are empty seats at dinner tables. There are families marking anniversaries they never wanted to face. There are roads, camps, homes and riverbanks that carry memories none of us can forget.

REMEMBERING TEXAS HILL COUNTRY: 1 YEAR SINCE THE HEARTBREAKING FLOODING DISASTER

For so many of us, it has been a season of grief as well as a season of recovery. We have spent the year since learning that a disaster happens in an instant, and recovery is much longer; it takes everything you have, for as long as you have it to give.

In the first days, Texas did what Texas does. Neighbors pulled neighbors out of the water. Ordinary people became heroes. Continuing the legacy of disaster........

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