'Wall of water': Hunt Flood survivor shares escape from her flooded house
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As the flood recovery and clean-up efforts enter their fifth full day, Gov. Greg Abbott provided a staggering update: 161 people are now confirmed to be missing in Kerr County alone, in addition to the total number of 111 confirmed deaths.
“There’s so many people that we know here that are gone,” Hunt resident Rena Bailey said. “And they haven’t even finished finding them yet.”
Bailey was in her home when the rain started rushing in on the morning of July 4. She said she was watching the storm’s pattern online when it broke out.
“I always do that, I want to know where lightning is striking. Weird, but, anyway,” Bailey said. The self-described ‘weird quirk’ may have saved her life.
“I saw the Hunt store start to disintegrate, I saw the post office start to disintegrate… and then this wall of water,” Bailey said. “I saw our truck go down the driveway, I saw the other truck go down the driveway. Marshall, my husband, was asleep. I woke him up and said ‘you have to got see this.'”
Marshall then took action, telling Rena they needed to evacuate. He physically dragged her up a nearby hill to a cabin on higher ground, as Rena wears a back brace and can’t move quickly.
“We saved each other. I woke him up, he took me out,” Bailey said. “We walked up a hill through brush and woods, he’s assisting me to get me through all that. We have a little log cabin on 11 acres — it’s small (but) it’s a roof over our heads… We sat on the floor, held each other and he said ‘let’s pray.’ We just held each other on our knees and said ‘let’s pray.'”
The Baileys’ prayers were answered. However, their community and home was left in ruin.
“There’s so many people that we know here that are gone. And they haven’t even finished finding them yet. This place was our paradise, was paradise to us. And now what we see. Unbelievable. Unbelievable,” Bailey said.
The big jump in the missing total comes as the state begins to factor in non-residents, such as people who were vacationing or camping in the area for the Fourth of July weekend. At Abbott’s media conference, he said officials will not stop their search until every missing person is located.
“We are not leaving until this job is finished,” Abbott said. “The primary job right now continues to be locating everybody who was affected by this flood. There still remain those who are missing. We have to find every single person who is missing.”
Abbott praised the response from the Trump administration, specifically Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who visited Kerrville Saturday and pledged the administration’s support.
“I’ve been dealing with events like this for 10 years, never have I seen someone respond as quickly and as effectively as what Secretary Noem did,” Abbott said.
The governor also shared that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told him Tuesday that he has declared a public health emergency, which will allow more out-of-state health providers to serve people in Texas affected by the floods.
As a special session approaches July 21, Abbott confirmed at Tuesday’s conference that legislation to address the floods would be at the top of the agenda. Asked what that legislation would look like, House Speaker Dustin Burrows said it was too early to make that determination. Abbott said investigations would be conducted by the House and Senate before special session begins.
“My job is to bring Texas and Texans together and make sure that we immediately start delivering on solutions,” Abbott said. “We continue to maintain that response here, while also going to the State Capitol and working on around-the-clock responses there to make sure that we do deliver real solutions for these people sitting right behind you.”
Abbott said anyone who wishes to report someone as missing, can call 830-258-1111 or visit kerrvillemissing@dps.texas.gov.
