Multi-agency resource centers set to be placed in Hill Country flood response

Volunteers from disaster relief agencies, churches and residents in Marble falls rolled up their sleeves and cleaned up people’s homes devastated by Tuesday’s floods.

The American Red Cross volunteers searched for small cul-de-sacs to assist Saturday afternoon. Longtime volunteer Matthew Clark said in his experience those areas often get missed.

"These homes are devastated in a disaster assessment that means major so these folks really need a lot of help," said Clark. “This is some pretty thorough devastation I was just in North Carolina a week and a half ago some parts of North Carolina looked like this, some were a little bit worse but not nearly as much mud.”

The Reyes family awoke to water entering their home. Jerry Reyes said his neighbor came knocking on their door and when his daughter opened it and saw the water she alerted everyone in the house. Watching his home being gutted Saturday was overwhelming.

They're tearing out my house completely and it's just hard to take," Reyes said. "I worked real hard for everything I got and to see it go away…we are burning half it over here so it's just hard, it's real hard."

Reyes unfortunately did not have flood insurance when the devastation hit. He said he couldn’t afford it.

Carla Gutzler lives next door she framed a photo of what her home looked like underwater. She said it only took 15-minutes for the water to flood her house. Gutzler is no stranger to Marble Falls unforgivable floods. Her home flooded back in 1997. At that time she said it only rose four feet.

Clark said homeowners in the area need volunteers more than anything.

Multi-agency resource centers (MARC) are set to be in place in Hill Country flooded areas next week. MARC will host an event bringing multiple service providers together in a single location, providing on-site assistance such as clean-up kits, supplies, financial assistance and the opportunity to register needs for recovery. The event is organized by the Austin Disaster Relief Network.

Opportunities to volunteer with clean-up, donation distribution can be found here.

What kind of donations are needed and where drop-off points can be found on Llano County Emergency Management’s Facebook along with Burnet County Sheriff’s Facebook.