For families trying to recover from the July 4 flash floods, the to-do list can be overwhelming. One nonprofit is helping flood victims by getting donations directly into the hands of families in need.
Laura Glisson was living on a family property with her husband and 6-year-old son when the July 4 flash flood hit. After waking up in the middle of the night, she noticed some pooling water inside the house.
"I opened the [front] door, and it was at that moment that I see the raging, at this point river that's usually a creek... I was like, the creek is in our front yard," Glisson explained.
The three of them had to evacuate the house and wade through waist-deep floodwaters to higher ground.
In the weeks since the flood, dozens of community members and volunteers have helped Glisson and her family start to clean up their property. But the road to full recovery is long.
The Central Texas Community Foundation opened relief funds for Travis and Williamson County, collecting donations that will end up directly in the hands of families impacted by the flood.
"When the dust settles and these people go to rebuild their lives, what they need desperately is money," said Amy Merida, the Executive Director of the Central Texas Community Foundation. "An event like this can wipe someone out. And realistically, there are people that will have to walk away from their home because they will not be able to afford the loan to fix it, or the cost out of pocket to take care of what they need to take care of."
The foundation expects about 450 families in Travis County and 150 families in Williamson County will qualify for financial help. But donations to their county relief funds have lagged far behind Kerr County.
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Val Dugone is Glisson's mother, and she knows that Kerrville was hit hard. "We had so much tragedy there, so totally understandable. But I think it took a long time for people to realize how flooded and devastated the area in our own community in Travis County and Williamson County was," she said.
As of Thursday morning, the relief fund for Travis County has just under $160,000 and the fund for Williamson County had a little over $700,000. Merida knows the fundraising work is far from over.
"The more businesses and individuals and groups that we can get to partner with us to give to this, the more it will help," she said.
The Central Texas Community Foundation hopes to start accepting applications from families by early August. Financial distributions will be decided by an advisory counsel that will consider a range of factors, including family size, income, insurance deductibles, and the amount of damage sustained in the flood.
