Volunteers Want to Help TX    07/08 06:42

   

   CENTER POINT, Texas (AP) -- Justin Rubio awoke in the wee hours to an alert 
on his phone, thunder, sirens and the thud of helicopter blades -- the 
beginning of one of the largest rescue operations in Texas history. Rubio was 
determined to be a part of it.

   Even as authorities in Kerr County have repeatedly discouraged civilian 
volunteers, Rubio and dozens of others went out Monday to search for people 
still missing after flash flooding tore through the Texas Hill Country over the 
July Fourth weekend.

   The emotions wrapped up in the calamity that killed at least 100 people -- 
and the urge to help find those still missing -- at times butted up against 
officials' need for structure and safety as they search over 60 miles (100 
kilometers) along the Guadalupe River.

   The river grew by the size of a two-story building in less than an hour on 
Friday. One survivor described a " pitch-black wall of death." The flooding 
decimated shorelines, ripped trees from the ground, tossed and crushed a Ram 
truck, disappeared buildings and swept through a century-old summer camp packed 
with kids.

   Rubio, who picked through torn tree limbs Monday, said he couldn't help but 
pitch in.

   "It's sad. It eats at your soul, it eats at your heart," he said. "I can't 
just sit at home thinking about what's going on out here."

   The outpouring, volunteers say, is a Texas strain of solidarity, and 
officials have applauded the donations and volunteers in other areas.

   When it comes to search and rescue, however, fickle weather and a flash 
flood warning Sunday afternoon heightened authorities' fears that unorganized 
volunteers may end up adding to the missing or dead.

   On Sunday and Monday, officials began closing more search sites to 
volunteers, instead directing them to a local Salvation Army.

   "We need focused and coordinated volunteers, not random people just showing 
up and doing what they do," Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said. "We remain 
hopeful every foot, every mile, every bend of the river."

   Some families have been frustrated by the pace, but officials are asking for 
patience with the breadth of the search area and methodical, no-stone-unturned 
approach. It's a sweeping operation with 19 different local and state agencies, 
drones, dogs, boats and helicopters.

   Officials have laid out a grid over the search area. Each segment can reach 
over a mile (2 kilometers) and takes between one and three hours to search, 
Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, said at a news conference Monday 
morning.

   Rice reiterated for volunteers to "stay out of the way" so that first 
responders aren't waylaid ensuring that volunteers "don't become victims 
themselves."

   When volunteers were asked by official responders to leave sites in 
Kerrville, some moved to help search in the unincorporated community of Center 
Point on Monday, said Cord Shiflet, who'd rallied volunteers through a Facebook 
post.

   On Sunday, Shiflet had falsely claimed on Facebook that two girls had been 
rescued in a tree days after the flooding, but he said Monday that he had 
received bad information and apologized.

   The mistake caught the attention of U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, who represents the 
area and urged people to be careful about false news.

   "It's not fair to families and it distracts law enforcement," Roy posted on 
the social platform X.

   At Center Point on Monday, dozens of undeterred volunteers gathered, 
including Rubio and Bryan Dutton, in the afternoon heat. Dutton, a veteran who 
said he had friends at an RV camp affected by the floods, had been waiting to 
get off work to join the droves of residents coming out to assist and provide 
food.

   "We do what we can do," Dutton said. "That's how Texas is."

   **

   This story from the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News 
Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that 
places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.