KERRVILLE, Texas (KXXV) — Nearly three months after devastating floods swept through summer camps along the Guadalupe River, four Kerrville ISD employees are reflecting on the morning of July 4, when they helped evacuate children to safety.
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“We really didn't know what we were getting into, but we knew where we were going. We knew where the camps were,” said Tivy High School Principal Rick Sralla.
They weren’t first responders, but they were among the first to step inside the flood-ravaged camps in the Texas Hill Country.
“We were present during the aftermath. It wasn't happening when we were there. We were just fortunate to be a tool that was able to help get these kids out. I've never seen destruction like that in my lifetime, so just driving through was – there's just no words,” Tivy teacher and coach Amanda Nicholson said
Sralla said the trauma was clear on the faces of many of the children.
“You could tell some of the younger kids, they were still thinking about what had happened the night before. They had been reliving the stories of the water in their cabins,” he said.
“I stuck my hand out and I said, ‘Come on, on board, you're safe. I got you. Go back and find you a place to sit.’ And I did that with every child that got on board my bus,” Bus driver Hal Poorman added.
“I picked up girls from a church from Camp Mystic. They were coming in on Army trucks covered in mud, holding hands,” Aubrey Pruitt, Tivy teacher and coach, said.
Poorman said the hardest moments came when some parents realized their children were missing.
“When that last child, when that last child got off that bus and those parents were standing out there and their child wasn't one of them, and the anguish… and those parents, the wives that buried their head in the husband's chest because their daughter wasn't there,” Poorman said.
“I made sure I told them all, you know, make sure you guys recognize what's going on, look out the windows, because this is something that you're gonna remember,” Sralla said.
“We lost a ton of people, a big heart of our community in the school district, a huge heart, and so it just felt like our hearts were just ripped away. And so it's just hard,” Nicholson said.
Despite the grief, Poorman said one thing continues to sustain them: the community’s motto.
“The motto that Tivy High School has, and it is also a motto for Kerrville, and that's: Tivy Fight Never Dies. You're strong, you're resilient, because Tivy Fight Never Dies. And our community has that same feeling,” Poorman said.
One of the Camp Mystic girls is still missing – 8-year-old Cile Steward.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed the search will not stop until every last person is brought home.
