Service Highlights Central Texas Flooding Response

“I have a deep love for the Savior, and I know that He came to show us how to live. Everything that we're taught helps us [with] things like this, to be able to go out and help others,” said Audra Miller, a member of the Boerne, Texas congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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As flood cleanup efforts steadily progress in the Texas Hill Country, members of the Church of Jesus Christ continue to be an integral part of the extensive service motivated by love of their neighbors and in serving one another.

Almost two feet of rain fell in parts of Central Texas on July 4, 2025, and within several hours the Guadalupe River rose nearly 35 feet. The area, nicknamed Flash Flood Alley because it is prone to floods, quickly became the focus of rescue and recovery efforts as destruction occurred across the raging river.

The Rescue

As rapidly as the water rose, first responders were on the scene to rescue nearly 900 people.

“The helicopters had started evacuating patients,” said Clint Johnson of the San Antonio Fire Department, a Latter-day Saint who was one of hundreds of first responders who were part of the rescue effort.

“There were four girls [who] had nothing on but their nightgowns. Soaking wet, covered in mud and seeing them walk across the field. That was when [the] moment hit me, and I felt the spirit strongly speaking to me that these people need a lot of help,” said Johnson.

“You could just see in their faces the the hurt, the pain. Some were telling stories of loss, and many were telling stories of survival,” he added.

Loss of Loved Ones

More than 135 people lost their lives in the flooding in the Hill Country, including Sally Graves, a Latter-day Saint from Hunt.

When the floodwater jumped dramatically in the early morning hours of July 4, the water flooded the home of the late Ghent and 91-year-old Sally Graves, situated about a block in from the Guadalupe River.

Awakened by a phone call from her long-time neighbor and friend Terry Hansen of the Kerrville Ward, Sally, assisted by her son, escaped the rising water in the house through her bedroom window. For a few hours, she and her son clung to a fence and a nearby tree as the raging water around them swirled. There, in his arms, she peacefully passed away. As the water receded toward daybreak, Sally’s son was able to bring her to the front porch. Brother Hansen and her son drove her to the morgue. She was the first fatality reported.

“The heroic efforts of my brother Clark, and also of dear friend and neighbor Terry Hansen, will be appreciated for the rest of our lives and into the eternities,” said Catherine Graves, Sally’s daughter.

At her funeral service on Saturday, July 12, she was memorialized for her extraordinary service to her family, the Church, and the wider community. She and her husband, Ghent, who passed away in 2017, were loved in Kerrville and the surrounding area for their discipleship. He served as bishop of the Kerrville Ward a quarter of a century ago.

Bishop Matthew Huff of the Kerrville Ward of the Church said she “had a strong and abiding love for the Savior, Jesus Christ. She was the perfect Southern refined woman.” He recently said she was a “beloved pillar of our ward – a quiet strength whose presence radiated faith, compassion and Christlike love. She carried a bright and unwavering testimony of the restored gospel and lived each day as a true disciple of the Savior.”

“Her absence leaves a tender space in our hearts and in our ward family. She will be deeply missed, but her legacy of faith and kindness will live on in each of us who were blessed to know her,” said Bishop Huff.

“I have felt my mom around me for three weeks, all day, and every day,” said Catherine Graves. “We were always close, but the way it’s unified our family in her death, which is everything she would have wanted. The miracles of her were just helping day after day.”

Family gatherings along the Guadalupe River have been a part of the Graves’ family for generations, and they plan to keep their tradition of spending significant time together there in the future.

River Flooding Brings Unique Response

Unlike a hurricane which often brings widespread flooding, the flash flooding along the Guadalupe River was deadly and destructive along a narrow, but lengthy 125-mile path.

This created a unique circumstance for response. Rather than the typical immediate efforts quickly organized by the Church of Jesus Christ to engage large armies of volunteers to assist in the cleanup, authorities asked that those efforts be placed on hold while the efforts to find those missing were concluded.

This provided opportunities to have members of local congregations who work in government and emergency response agencies to assist with real-time coordination and then provide local Church leadership with updates. This in turn provided service opportunities for individuals and families.

To date, members of the La Cantera Texas Stake have provided around 4,000 volunteer hours of service to the community.

Projects they have assisted with include professional emergency rescue, heavy machinery support, volunteer coordination, medical response, community support, cleanup including mucking and drywall removal, humanitarian donation gathering and sorting, debris removal and artifact recovery, animal shelter assistance and wellness checks.

Of the volunteerism, J. Michael Villarreal, president of the La Cantera Texas Stake said, “This recovery is far from over. But the foundation laid by our members – one of humility, hard work, and harmony with local partners – positions the Church as a trusted, helpful presence for the months of healing and rebuilding ahead.”

Collaboration With the American Red Cross

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is collaborating with the American Red Cross to help those in need in Central Texas.

“You are giving us extra hands and feet in this response, and we are coming up on the one-month anniversary,” said Bethany Patterson, public affairs manager of the American Red Cross.

The Church’s support has helped pay for temporary housing for displaced homeowners impacted by the flooding. Many are staying in hotels while their homes are being cleaned up and repaired.

“Your contributions help us provide those wraparound services, meaning we provide mental health, health services, spiritual care, feeding any durable medical equipment that they have lost, through our health services. And then we also help them to find their next step in life,” explained Sandy Hughes, manager of external relations for the American Red Cross.

Hughes said some of the shelters now are being consolidated. “We still have 12 shelters that have population in them.”

“We're shifting from that immediate response of feeding people who have lost power those types of services,” said Patterson. “We're definitely shifting into the long-term response and finding housing for people. We will be here for the long term. We are here for people, and it's thanks to support from partners like you, so thank you.”

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members joined in “to try to be like Christ, to follow his great example,” said Louis Deppe, a Latter-day Saint volunteer.

“That’s why we’re here is to go through trials and comfort others,” said Deppe, who walked the riverbank to look for those who were missing. He was motivated to help after learning a friend was missing his daughter.

Deppe joined the Church of Jesus Christ when he was in his early 30s. “It's a church of action. It's a church of not just talk about it. Let's go help. That's kind of my motivator is to try to be a help to others.”

He added, “I would say there's a lot more people that are instrumental in heroic work than me. I'm just a tiny piece of the puzzle. It's about my friend's daughter, and people like her that lost their lives. And the people who ... were saved but will be traumatized for a long time. That's who it's about and not me.”

“I've seen some floods before in this area, .... but never a flood of this magnitude,” said Burnie Miller, who recently retired from the San Antonio Fire Department.

“I just know that we’re here to do the Lord’s work,” said Miller. “I think we’re His hands on the earth, and you need to help each other.”  

Audra Miller answered a call from her local Church leaders to help spread the word about Crisis Cleanup, an emergency response tool to assist volunteers in their effort to serve.

“We ran and made fliers, and I hit the road the next day, and we went to businesses and left fliers, speaking with people. We went to every fire station. We went to the sheriff's office. And then we went to the neighborhoods, and we walked the neighborhoods and talked to the people that had been affected.”

Megan Wilson, a mother of four small children, is working with a group of rescuers through social media to locate the owners of lost items found on the Guadalupe River.

“There [are] the people bringing the items in, and then there’s a whole team of women who are washing them and very gently taking care of them and then doing the sacred work of returning these items to some of the flood victims,” explained Wilson. “We’ve seen many, many miracles over the past couple of weeks.”

Nearly 40 of those who perished in the Texas flood were children, mainly in Kerr County. Green ribbons are displayed around Kerrville and other Texas communities to honor the victims of the flooding. Green is the color of Camp Mystic, a Christian camp for girls who have been affected by the tragedy. Twenty-seven campers and counselors lost their lives.

Latter-day Saint volunteer Austin Mickelsen has been helping with recovery efforts with crews from all over the world nearly every day since the natural disaster.

“If a parent [were] asking for help, if I [were] the parent asking for help, I would be so appreciative of anybody who could step up and be there … trying to help give some of these families closure,” said Michelsen.

Clint Johnson said the ordeal has helped him “understand Christ’s love for us. … He does want us to feel joy, you know, and that through times of trial we can be strengthened.”

He continued, “It's going to take a lot of time for all of the scars in this region to heal, but at some point, we will heal, and we will move forward, and we'll be stronger because of it.”

Carrying Forward

It has been two weeks since the funeral of Sally Graves. Her family is moving forward with faith and gratitude.

On Sunday, July 27, Johnson, Catherine Graves and their families gathered with their local Latter-day Saint congregation in Kerrville for a worship service.

“One of the most profound truths that we learn in this life is that we can both feel heartache and hope at the same time,” taught Matthew Huff, bishop of the Kerrville Ward. “In Gethsemane the Savior's joy was not in the absence of pain, but in the presence of purpose. He saw us as brothers and sisters, redeemed,” he said.

“You all have pulled together your abilities, your talents, your resources to bless so many,” concluded President Villarreal.

“As we follow His Son, even Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost, you will be shown what to do and how to do it in His way to bless those around us, and it is because we have been able to feel the hand of God in our lives,” he said.