With just word-of-mouth warning, a man raced 25 miles to save guests at his Texas RV park

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15 hours ago

CENTER POINT, TX – As rain fell in heavy sheets and the Guadalupe River muscled over its banks with astonishing speed, David Chambers knocked on one door after another at his RV resort.
The once-idyllic RV park – named Guadalupe Keys Resort to evoke the laid-back vibe of the Florida Keys – boasted nine fully furnished RVs for rent (each with its own barbecue pit), a small sandy beach shaded by towering cypress trees, and lawn chairs for lounging and watching the gentle flow of the Guadalupe.
At 6:50 a.m. July 4, that same river was foaming and galloping – and headed their way.
'You got to get out!' Chambers yelled into one RV after another until all 15 people who had rented the units had evacuated.
Minutes later, the brown water had covered the park, flipping RVs, smashing them against trees and stacking them in a corner of the park. The floodwaters pushed others miles downstream.
On July 7, Chambers sat on one of the lawn chairs with friends and recalled the frantic moments when the river mauled his park. He was glad he was able to alert his residents and hustle them to safety.
But he – like others along the Guadalupe River corridor – said he was stunned not to have had better warning.
'It just came so fast,' said Chambers, 77. 'A warning system would have given us more than just 30 minutes.'
How to properly warn the residents, camps and parks along the Guadalupe River of impending floods has been a topic of much debate here since the July 4 floods washed away homes and camps and killed more than 100 people, many of them children.
Kerr County, which includes Center Point, is full of hilly topography with rivers and creeks so prone to flooding that it earned the nickname 'Flash Flood Alley.' Yet, in 2017 and again in 2018, state officials denied the county a $1 million grant to build a flood warning system that would have upgraded 20 water gauge systems, added new water level sensors and posts, and created software and a website to distribute that information to the public in real-time.
'We can do all the water level monitoring we want, but if we don't get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,' then-County Commissioner Tom Moser said at a meeting in January 2017, days before the application deadline.
As residents return to muddied, wrecked homes or plan funerals for loved ones lost in the floods, many are asking why there wasn't more warning. Meteorologists issued a flood 'watch' on the afternoon of July 3 but didn't upgrade it to a more urgent 'emergency' until 4 a.m. July 4 – when many unsuspecting residents were asleep in harm's way.
Search efforts: A flood killed his entire family in 2015. Now, he's joined search efforts in Texas.
Camp Mystic, a venerable and beloved Christian camp for girls near Hunt, Texas, lost at least 27 campers and counselors in the floods.
J.R. Singley, of Kerrville, said river communities need a better flood warning system, including sirens like those that warn of tornadoes.
'We lost 24 or 25 or 26 kids,' he said. 'These young kids, they were terrorized by this thing. To die like that is, in my opinion, terrible.'
He added: 'If we'd had a decent warning system, it would have made all the difference in the world.'
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News on July 7 that he and Gov. Greg Abbott have discussed paying for siren warning systems along river communities prone to flash flooding.
'Had we had sirens along this area, up and down … that would've blown very loudly,' he told the news channel, 'it's possible that that would've saved some of these lives.'
Chambers said he didn't know of any threatening storm system or flood potential until he received a phone call at his home in nearby Boerne from Drew Yancy, his partner who was staying on the property. Yancy told him the Guadalupe was rising.
Chambers sped the 25 miles to the park, arriving just as the river was spilling over its banks. It was 6:29 a.m. As he stood watching the swelling river, he saw a 4-foot-high wall of water rolling down the river toward him, carrying tree branches, roof siding and other debris.
He sprinted up the shore, and he and another worker began banging on RV doors. He didn't stop until all 15 customers, including several children, had left the property.
On July 7, the park was a disaster zone: RVs were stacked on top of one another in the mud at a corner of the park. One had flipped upside down and lost most of its body; several had vanished downstream. One of his shipping containers containing tools and other belongings was spotted by a friend in Waring, Texas – 15 miles downstream.
Uprooted cypress and live oak trees littered the park. Most of the three-story-tall cypress trees near the beach were splintered or uprooted. Thick river mud covered everything.
Chambers celebrated his 77th birthday July 7 as volunteers spread across his property, using chain saws to hack through downed trees or clearing debris. He has insurance and plans to rebuild, though he won't put RVs near the riverbank again – those are the ones that vanished downstream.
But if he's going to rebuild, he said, the county or state should come up with a better warning system.
'America always reacts. It never tries to prevent,' Chambers said. 'We need to start preventing.'
Contributing: Kenny Jacob
Follow Jervis on X: @MrRJervis.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas RV park owner raced miles to warn guests to seek safer ground