This is a lengthy blog post. If you want to skip to WHAT YOU CAN DO to help, scroll to the bottom. Believe it or not, I shortened it. There are just so many thoughts and feelings to share.
It’s surely not news to anyone reading this that there’s been a flood here in the Texas Hill Country. As you likely know, MixHaus Gallery is located in Comfort, a small unincorporated community near Kerrville. We escaped the worst of it, but the loss and destruction are right next door and sorely felt here. We’re just downstream from the epicenter. Helicopters fly over regularly. Now and then we hear sirens and see police cruisers rushing in the direction of the river. We all know what that likely means: another body or more have been found, and death walks into whatever space we’re currently occupying. Tears sit just beneath the surface. The near constant sight of trucks hauling heavy equipment with a sense of eagle-eyed purpose feels similar to watching a funeral procession. Locals meet each other with hugs that last a little longer. Eye contact is heavy with grief and knowing. Somber is the best word I can find for the pall hovering in the air.
The word “Flood” feels like an insufficient name for what’s happened. It looks like someone chucked entire communities into a blender, added water, and pressed Pulse. Blended. Churned. Ravaged. Roiled. Decimated. Flooded simply feels like too tame of a descriptor.
Or perhaps it all feels more complex than the word “Flood” can describe. Because with the waters on July 4th came such expansive loss, death, destruction, grief, kindness, generosity, defeat, hope, pain, bravery, connection, and love. The Flood leveled not just homes, camps, trees, bridges, animals, and human lives…but also, for now, here on the ground, it leveled the growing bias, prejudice, and division that have dominated us recently. For now, the Flood—the great destroyer—is also something of a unifier, holding contradictions as complex as we humans. For now, we are remembering what it’s like to be kind and generous with one another without qualifiers. We’re remembering what it’s like to feel another’s pain, see their humanity, and recognize their contributions. To cry together. Feed each other. Hug strangers. Share joy. Witness pain. And love each other. For now.
— Cara Hines
WHAT WE'RE DOING
MixHaus Gallery, Hotel Giles, the town of Comfort, our homes, staff, and families have not sustained direct losses. For this we’re grateful. But for those in our community, our friends and neighbors, and yes, strangers who have suffered and will continue to suffer for a time…or for all time…we are hurting.
Since the Flood, I have found it near impossible to focus on the gallery and business of promoting art and our artists. Any sense of “business as usual” is difficult to achieve. I believe strongly in my artists and the ability of art in all its forms to heal and express the myriad of human emotions and experience. We will get there. But know that for a time, I’m going to feel strange posting artwork without referencing the context in which the gallery and our region currently finds ourselves.
I’ve focused my attention primarily at Hotel Giles, which I co-own. Over the past few days that seem to have comprised a month, we’ve housed the families and friends of four 21-year-olds—Joyce Catherine Badon, Ella Cahill, Claire Manchaca, and Aidan Heartfield—whose lives were lost when the house they were vacationing in was submerged with unimaginable speed. With a final phone call to their parents, they were swept away. We made sure these people had dinners and a quiet, peaceful place when they returned each evening after searching in vain. We made sure they had breakfast early before heading out again. And when we received word that one of their daughters, Joyce Catherine, was found on Monday not long after they left us, we wept.
Hotel Giles is doing everything we can as a small, locally owned boutique hotel:
- We’re housing grieving families, first-responders, Search and Rescue Volunteers, and now Search and Recovery and K9 handlers
- We're offering a 25% Emergency Relief Discount for volunteers, official personnel, and families, as well as making sure they're fed and laundry is done. People have also offered to help cover the additional room costs if someone needs that assistance.
- We’ve compiled a list of FREE Lodging Options offered by Comfort residents in their guest houses, cabins, RV’s, and rooms in their homes for people affected by the flood and those here to help them. There are so many generous people who have stepped up to house and help feed these people. We are beyond fortunate to share this community with them.
Mostly, it feels like not enough. It feels like we could be doing more. But I believe these small acts of one-to-one care are actually very big. Perhaps they’re what the world needs more of than anything else.
We will continue holding space for love and healing in Comfort and throughout the Texas Hill Country…for our neighbors in Center Point, Kerrville, Ingram, Hunt and the hundreds of families who have lost loved ones from across the state and beyond. We will continue to offer small kindnesses and hopefully make big impacts, one person at a time.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
It’s natural at times like this to want to help. Distance feels like impotence, but sometimes there’s simply little we can do—and we have to be careful not to make it about ourselves. To witness another’s hard earned pain, to simply sit with it, is a gift. True help needs to be well-placed. It must be informed. We must ensure our “help” is not simply to make ourselves feel better while actually doing harm to those we intended to help. So if you’d like to do something, evaluate what the downstream effects of your actions will be before acting.
In collaboration with various local organizations, I’ve compiled the following list of places where financial contributions can be made. Below that is a list of items that are now needed. Many organizations locally have received more food and personal item donations than they have space for, and it’s becoming a problem for them. Please think before sending anything and ensure that it’s needed where it’s going!
MONETARY DONATIONS
Our local VFD’s and foundations are receiving less press even though they were the first on scene and are most intimately aware of the needs in their communities. They’re here 24/7, 365 days a year helping ensure the well-being and safety of our locals and visitors. We encourage you to give what you’re able to these local organizations, most of whom have been hit hard by losses themselves and who are less likely to receive much needed funds.
☑️ Comfort Volunteer Fire Department
https://www.comfortvfd.org/donate/
☑️ Center Point Volunteer Fire Department
www.venmo.com username @CPVFDTX *
* Please be sure to use the Business Account @CPVFDTX as they’ve had issues with scammers
Or mail checks to: PO Box 494, Center Point TX 78010
Center Point VFD, located between Comfort and Kerrville on the Guadalupe River, sustained significant damage and loss to their fire station and equipment. They need funds to replace equipment and repair their station in addition to support recovery operations. Despite their own significant losses, they have continued to work hard with rescue and recovery.
☑️ Ingram Volunteer Fire Department
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/ingram-fire-department-donation-fund-2
☑️ Hunt Volunteer Fire Department
https://www.facebook.com/HuntVFDTexas78024
☑️ The Community Foundation of the Hill Country
https://www.communityfoundation.net/contact-us/
☑️ Comfort Area Foundation
https://comfortareafoundation.boosterhub.com/store/11877/27447
☑️ Sisterdale Volunteer Fire Department
☑️ Kerrville Pets Alive
Helping reunite pets with their families and caring for them in the process. Accepting financial and in-kind donations of pet food, carriers, and other pet supplies.
https://kerrvillepetsalive.com/
If you like the idea of feeding people who have been displaced or those showing up to do the grueling and often traumatic work of recovery and clean-up, our friends at World Central Kitchen are the best around. They were some of the first ones to arrive on the scene.
☑️ GoFundMe for Liz Hastings and Paul Welch
If you want to donate directly to persons who lost their homes and personal property, Liz and Paul are friends of ours who life just outside of Comfort. They lost the home they renovated over the years with their own blood, sweat and tears. The one in which they thought they'd live out the rest of their years.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND VOLUNTEERING
If you want to roll up your sleeves and bring yourself here, please contact one of the above organizations to find out what kind of help they need, when and where. Or join an organization in your area that's doing something to assist with clean up and recovery. Traffic can be issue. Conditions can be dangerous.
Know before you go!
GRATITUDE
Thank you to everyone who is showing up, or sending funds, necessary items, and love. We appreciate everything you're doing for the region.
If there is any way you can continue to support our local businesses in Comfort and other nearby communities, please do so. Most business owners are doing everything they can to help with the flood recovery efforts while still trying to operate our businesses. It's a tough situation. We don't want to divert resources away from recovery efforts, but if you're planning to purchase items that might be available at local businesses, please consider taking a little more time to spend your dollars locally. Many of us offer goods and services online.
Thank you!
Cara Hines