When Hurricane Harvey struck Rockport, Texas, in 2017, Brandon Ayers remembers who came to his aid. It was Texans from all over, including from the Hill Country.
Fast forward to 2025, and Ayers is here in the Hill Country, helping those who are recovering after last weekend’s devastating floods.
Ayers brought his barbecue business, Buddy’s BBQ, named after his dog Buddy, and is serving first responders, search and rescue, and others who are scouring the mud and debris looking for people who are still missing.
It’s part of what makes Texas, Texas, Ayers said.
“No matter what you go through in life, as a state, we all come together,” Ayers told Reuters TV on Wednesday in the town of Hunt. “Everybody wants to work together, everybody wants to help each other.”
Officials say the devastating flash flooding killed at least 120 people.
Search teams on Friday were still combing through muddy debris littering parts of the Hill Country in central Texas, looking for the dozens still listed as missing, but no survivors have been found since the day of the floods.
The Kerr County seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on July 4, dropping more than a foot of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly 30 feet.
The dead in Kerr County include 67 adults and at least 36 children, many of whom were campers at the nearly century-old Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the river.
Ayers, a father of a 17-year-old high school girl, said the loss of so many young children was heartbreaking.
“I just couldn’t imagine, could not imagine. I really can’t, I really have no words for it, actually. But that right there is the hardest part, is knowing. You know, it’s just sad. I really, I don’t have words for that part. It hurts me to even think about it,” he said.
Dan Beazley drove down from Northville, Michigan, bringing with him a giant cross to give hope to those affected.
He praised the locals for their immediate response.
“These people got out of their beds on Saturday morning, and they were the first ones here. And they were rescuing, pulling people out of trees,” he said.
Authorities have warned that the death toll will likely keep rising as floodwaters recede and search teams uncover more victims.
Public officials have faced days of questions about whether they could have alerted people in flood-prone areas sooner.
