Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
San Antonio city and faith leaders gathered with dozens of San Antonio residents on Monday night to hold a vigil for the dozens of people, including many children, who were killed by disastrous flooding in Kerr County over the weekend.
The vigil also served as a donation drive to help with the recovery efforts in Kerr County. Local authorities have said financial donations are a top priority and have asked people who want to help to send money to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, which will then distribute funds to relevant nonprofits and relief efforts.
Six counties reported deaths from multiple severe flood events since Friday, July 4. Also, Kerrville officials reported that a privately owned drone collided with a helicopter conducting search and rescue operations.
Sherry Williams brought a cart full of canned tuna, feminine products, baby formula, soap, and more to the Goodwill drive.
She explained why she came to help.
“I guess it just hits close to home,” Williams said. “It’s only an hour up the road, and I felt like I had a hard year last year and I didn’t have the means to do something like this. Now I do, I want to give back to the community.”
Dalton King is a driver for Goodwill’s Home Pickup service who was sorting donations from Williams and other residents into a series of large blue bins throughout the night.
Josh Peck
/
Texas Public Radio
King said he would load up a truck tonight and drive to Kerrville first thing on Tuesday morning to drop the donations off at a Goodwill store, which will be used as a distribution center.
“We have some clothing, a bunch of food — like we filled this up in maybe five minutes earlier,” he said, gesturing to a blue bin full of food in plastic bags. “We have even some pet supplies that people are bringing in. Like we’re just trying to get people squared away.”
The vigil was organized by Centro San Antonio, a downtown revitalization group, and convened several faith leaders, including Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, who spent Friday and Sunday in Kerr County.
“At this moment, many questions will still run in our minds, but presence — presence — to survivors clinging to hope, to grieving parents and to every family resting with sorrow, in gentle companionship, we begin to process what we have lost,” he said. “May all of us be a beacon of hope and solidarity.”
Josh Peck
/
Texas Public Radio
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and several San Antonio City Council members also attended the vigil.
Jones said the city was doing all it could to assist its neighbors in Kerr County.
“We’ve got 21 personnel there currently helping with those and obviously we will do that for as long as we need to, because in these times … Kerr County, Bexar County, [it] doesn’t matter, right?” she said. “We are going to step up and help in the way that we can.”
Speakers at the vigil also used the opportunity to remember the 13 San Antonio residents who died in the flooding of Beitel Creek in June.
Great Job Josh Peck & the Team @ Texas Public Radio Source link for sharing this story.
