.png)
Teresa Kendrick Wimberley View
This article is the first in a series that covers flood relief efforts in the greater Dripping Springs area. Look for the next article in our Aug. 7 issue.
Wimberley’s Debbie Adams is the organizer behind a collection and redistribution effort in Hays County for hardhit Highland Lakes, Sandy Creek and San Saba areas.
With Jane Philips, who is handling monetary donations, the two women, with dedicated volunteers, have turned the Hays County Republican Party Welcome Center into a meaningful conduit for recovery efforts.
Adams looked remarkably relaxed for a person pivoting between donors, drivers, volunteers in Kyle and at ground zero in the affected areas, and community organizations on the receiving end. Her 14 years as an emergency room nurse, 30 years as a Hill Country camp nurse and President of McDonald charities in Greater Houston prepared her to step up.
“My sister Jennine provided the spark to get the motor running,” Adams said during an interview last week.
A day after the Guadalupe began flooding on July 4, Jennine and her neighbors were on their way to Brookshire to buy supplies for the flood victims.
“We need a place to take supplies,” Jennine texted, and Adams texted back that she could be at the Welcome Center at 10 a.m. At 10:10, donations started coming in.
“The first week was super intense. We were either receiving donations, sending supplies somewhere, sourcing needs, organizing volunteers, making recommendations, or answering posts from people at ground zero,” Adams said.
While relief efforts focused on Kerr County, a first load of supplies from Kyle went to the Highland Lakes area of Marble Falls.
“We put the donations we’d received in a six-horse trailer and delivered it to The Ark of the Highland Lakes and they were ready for us. Volunteers were lined up to unpack the trailer and take whatever was needed to those who were stranded. So many people lost their cars in the floodwaters and they had no way to get anything they needed,” she said. “There was no media there, just volunteers ready to help. It was an uplifting experience.”
Volunteers began coming to the Welcome Center with the aim to help. “One of the most useful things they did was to sort things. At one of the first places we delivered supplies to, the first question we received from wary volunteers was, ‘Is it sorted?’ It was so nice to say, ‘yes,’ it is.”
All day long Debbie would see posts from people who needed help. Burnet needed hay for stranded cattle. Adams, with help from Philips, organized five different trips to get hay and cubes to Burnet. Fences were down in San Saba. Adams reached out and learned that fencing was coming from a donor and earmarked it for San Saba.
Communicating only by X, she quickly formed a network.
From Sandy Creek, Adams received a text from a volunteer on the ground identified only as “Dash.” With the help of the very responsive Dash, Adams and volunteers were able to send supplies right to the affected area.
As relief efforts from the Welcome Center in Kyle, turned into a week, Adams and her network mobilized donations of heavy equipment, significant manpower, and a 40-foot shipping container to secure donations.
A forty-year resident of Houston, Adams said that Hurricane Harvey “taught us how to respond.”
“The key is to develop a laser focus. When relief started coming in during Harvey, we heard that Beaumont needed help. So we organized a delivery of food and water. Then we heard that animals were stranded in the tiny town of Winnie. It was then that I realized that a small drop of relief could make a big splash in areas not yet registered on the big relief radar screens.”
When asked what is needed next, Adams said that, “Needs are fluid, but right now chain saws are sorely needed.”
