Lets Talk About It: The Healing along the Guadalupe River

“We are still healing” isn’t a line you say for effect. It’s a status update from a community that lived through catastrophic Texas Hill Country flooding and is still carrying the weight of it. I spent my birthday weekend back in Kerrville, Texas, along the banks of the Guadalupe River, because I needed to see the river one year later and talk to the people who never got to “move on” when the cameras left.

We reflect on what it means to witness flood damage in person, from the river corridor stretching toward Canyon Lake to the places where devastation is still visible. The hardest stop is near Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, where the grief doesn’t resolve into a neat lesson. There’s no closure to be found, only a clearer understanding of how deep loss can run after a natural disaster and how long disaster recovery really takes.

Over lunch at the Lake House Family Restaurant, owner Mark Armstrong shares a perspective that stopped me cold: how you can feel like “the luckiest guy on the block” on the worst day of your life. That tension between gratitude and heartbreak is a thread so many survivors recognize. We also talk about what gives towns real resilience when the water recedes: neighbors helping neighbors across Kerrville, Hunt, and Bandera, and the kind of togetherness you can’t fake.

If this conversation moves you, subscribe, share it with someone who cares about community resilience, and leave a review so more people can find these stories. What does healing look like to you after a disaster?

Transcript

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Still Healing After The Flood

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And we are still healing.

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I wish we were through, but we're not.

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We are still healing. That is Mark Armstrong, the owner of the Lake House Family Restaurant in Kerrville, Texas, right on the banks of the Guadalupe River out in the Texas Hill Country. That is where I spent my birthday, July 4th weekend. And between having good friends, one of the things that I definitely wanted to see was not just experiencing the Guadalupe River one year later, after one of the most tragic events ever happened in Texas, as far as Mother Nature and flooding, and I had volunteered at the Sandy Creek which flows into Lake Travis later in July of last year. And that damage was horrific. Indescribable. And people are still healing and mourning the loss of well over a hundred lives, including

Camp Mystic And The Weight Of Loss

SPEAKER_01 1:45

the young girls and counselors at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. I did go by Camp Mystic, saw that, and it there's no closure on it. There's no closure to be had when you visit it, but it is very emotional when you see this, and you see Camp Mystic across the river. Devastation's still clearly visible all the way into Kerrville, and of course, all along where the Guadalupe River flows into Canyon Lake. Tremendous amount of damage.

Lunch In Kerrville With Mark Armstrong

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Well, I got to speak to Mark Armstrong when we had lunch at his establishment, the Lake House, which has been around for 44 years at this location right here. Simply picturesque, beautiful. And Mark, who has done a lot of interviews with several media outlets.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

In comparison to the world around me, I'm like the luckiest guy on the block. So it that's hard to process how you can be so lucky on the worst day of your life.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Now that is quite a perspective to have.

Seeing The Damage And Community Spirit

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Seeing that, witnessing the power of water and mother nature, such as that in person, it's something that I had to see and talk to the locals about to truly grasp what that was like. And whenever you get an opportunity to witness communities coming together and helping one another, which all of those hill country communities have done, it was a tremendous visit to Bandera, Kerrville, Hunt, just talking to the people. And when you feel that sense of community and togetherness, man, it's always good to talk about.