Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas.

This episode is being released on July 17, 2005, almost two weeks after one of the most devastating flooding episodes in Texas history and the biggest inland flood in the United States since 1976.

At Hunt, Texas west of Curville, the Guadalupe River rose about 26 feet in 45 minutes.

This caused a devastating surge even higher than 26 feet in some areas.

No doubt you've heard of all the death and destruction that this flood caused.

These circumstances have impacted everyone in Texas, it seems,

so I wanted to record something to mark the event because it's a historic tragedy.

Many people lost their houses, their business, some lost their lives along the river.

We grieve for them, but Texans are people of action, and it's always been that way.

When a fellow Texan is in trouble, that's duty calling to the rest of us, and Texans always respond.

I remember Hurricane Ike in 2008, and people in the Houston area banded together to help

each other evacuate and deal with things, and one reporter from up north was just astounded

that people of all cultures and races and religions were working together.

But for us, it was just another Saturday in September.

And so it is with this tragic event. The response has been tremendous.

Over a thousand people worked, search, rescue and recovery in the Hill Country, and there still unfortunately much to be done h eb sent

their disaster team almost immediately as did others untold quantities of goods flowed to the hill

country from all over the place texans answered the call and one reason i think that it's hit all of us

so hard as the deaths of so many children.

My own daughter went to Camp Mystic years ago, so I'm familiar with the camp,

familiar with its traditions, and the wonderful rich camp culture in Texas, not just at Mystic,

but all the wonderful hill country camps.

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