Soyla Reyna stood outside Calvary Temple Church on Thursday, taking a break from working for hours at a flood shelter at her home church in Kerrville.
“A lot of things are unbelievable,” she said as the rain began to subside outside the church terrace. “People are shocked that this has happened again.”
Throughout the morning, Reina saw nearly 50 people come to the Calvary Temple. They sought supplies and shelter after rapidly rising waters washed away their homes and RVs, a scene reminiscent of the devastating floods that devastated the region more than a year ago.
“Both times in the middle of the night. I think that’s what makes it so crushing. It’s like I can’t see, I can’t see, you know…” she said, looking down and sighing.
For many Hill Country residents, Thursday’s flooding relived familiar levels of devastation and trauma experienced during and after the July 2025 floods in Kerr County that killed 119 people.
In many parts of the county and elsewhere, the scene was strikingly similar: Fences were piled with debris and personal belongings, cars were strewn in every direction, and water lines hugged the bases of homes. The response from mountain community members also echoed that of last year, with neighbors gathering at each other’s homes to help start cleanup efforts and shelters providing hot meals and clean clothes to displaced people.
Rains early Thursday pushed the Guadalupe River in Comfort to 37 feet and the Pedernales River in Fredericksburg to 34 feet, according to river gauges. Last year, near Kerrville, Hunter’s Guadalupe River surged to a record 37.5 feet on July 4.
In some parts of the region, water levels are rising even more than in 2025. Post-flood renovations at the Center Point Fire Station were almost entirely destroyed after fresh flooding swept away the building. Farther north in Bulmental, business owners watched as low-water crossings along the Pedernales River disappeared into the roaring waters, taking tree trunks with them in their wake.
“This is the highest I’ve seen it in 32 years and it’s backing up to where we are across the street. It’s backing up into our creek. I’ve never seen it back up there,” said Russell Studebaker, a peach farmer in Burmenthal.
People living along the river have been accustomed to flooding for decades, but last year’s sudden flooding caught long-time residents off guard. Since then, residents have sought solace in the belief that the sudden rise in the river was a once-in-a-century event – an apparent illusion that was shattered in the early hours of Thursday morning.
“When this happened last year, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this has never happened before, so maybe it won’t happen again in our lifetimes,'” said Shirley Stedham, who lives in Center Point on the river. “A year and a few days later, here we are.”
Stedham was awakened at 5:15 a.m. by a neighbor and old friend whose home was closer to the river and collected four inches of water. The water line stops near Steadham’s own home, almost exactly where it will be in 2025.
The floodwaters receded somewhat that day, but Stedham and her neighbors still had to raise their voices above the roar of the raging river as it carried debris lifted from homes upriver.
There are differences between the 2025 floods and Thursday’s floods, including a much smaller sudden surge in rainfall. Stedham and friends who woke up before her described the slow climb from the river to their home, a far cry from the wall of water that caught them off guard a year ago.
While the speed of the flooding and the severity of the toll varied — at least two people had died as of Thursday night — watching the water rise and fielding calls from stranded residents reminded many first responders of the frightened residents they rescued from horrific flooding last year.
“When it rains hard, you hear the rain and you can see the look on their faces,” said Razor Dobbs, a volunteer firefighter with the Center Point Fire Department who participated in last year’s flood rescue. “You can see the look on their faces, that’s it.”
But the region is ready. Unlike last year when the local government failed to issue disaster warnings in time, Stedham neighbor Maria Flemming said warnings were issued from 1:30 a.m. on Thursday until after the worst of the flooding receded. Emergency crews checked on her and the Standham family in the morning, urging them to evacuate without success.
Dobbs was proud of his team’s response, which reflected a year of preparation.
“Last night and the night before, we had everything lined up,” he said.
“After last year we had a lot of funding. We invested in boats and training and our funding is rock solid.”
This article first appeared in The Texas Tribune.
Photo: Sherri Steadham stands on her front lawn after floodwaters from the Guadalupe River recede near her home in Center Point on July 16, 2026. Eric Vryn writes for The Texas Tribune
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Texas Floods
