Even though we had been experiencing hours of stormy weather the night before the July 4th , little did

we know that the Guadalupe River had become a deadly flood in the early morning hours. Hill Country

first responders, including Fredericksburg’s swift water rescue team, were quick to support Kerrville and

Kerr County forces. Some state assets were also in the area earlier in the week as a precaution due to

the rain forecasts. More support arrived quickly from all over Texas plus neighboring states.

Establishing an effective working relationship with city staff, neighboring chambers, key charities, and

others became very important over the weekend. We were informed early Friday morning by FBG

officials about the flooding and the number of missing children from Camp Mystic. This alerted us to

reach out to the Kerrville Chamber to offer support, and we remained in contact throughout the

weekend. We also reached out to the Boerne Chamber to get information about Comfort, which had an

evacuation alert early Friday morning.

An important charity asset for the Hill Country is the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country.

Within hours on Friday morning, the foundation had in place the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund:

https://tinyurl.com/KerrFloodRelief

Also, by Friday noon, numerous retail shops, wineries and other businesses began announcing their

fund-raising efforts for the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund. So many of our Chamber members joined the

program that there is not enough space in this column to list everyone who stepped up. The initial

reports are that the efforts of our members will raise over $100,000 for the fund. Some members have

pledged to continue their fund-raising programs throughout July.

FBG Food and Wine Festival has also announced that it will donate all proceeds from the July 21-27

Preview Week events to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.

Now the long chapter of recovery starts, and the Kerrville Chamber is preparing its plan to support its

membership and community. We will be working with the Kerrville Chamber team by providing on-site

administrative support in their office so that their team can focus on designing and implementing their

recovery plan.

I expect that we will learn more about what support the Kerrville Chamber and the community will need

to quickly recover and then leverage our Chamber’s talented members to help our neighbors. This

collaboration will make us all stronger—Hill Country Strong.

In the Chamber’s weekly communications, we will continue to share information about support and

volunteer opportunities in Kerrville.