KERRVILLE, Texas – All of the stuff that was inside Wayne Donaghe’s home is now in a pile of what used to be his driveway.
Several feet behind the pile is where Donaghe’s 87-year-old wife, Caroline, nearly drowned after she fell and broke her shoulder as they escaped the floodwaters on July 4.
Caroline survived and just got out of surgery. She is currently recovering at a rehabilitation facility in Boerne.
Donaghe knows they are fortunate to be alive after his home, which he said is 30 feet above the Guadalupe River, was submerged by the flood.
“It’s heavy,” Donaghe said. “Everything about this is heavy. Everything.”
Donaghe said the home has been in his wife’s family for the past 100 years. He had just finished remodeling it over the past five years.
Waist-deep floodwaters rushed into the home as Donaghe, Caroline, his stepson and their dog barely made it out alive.
“We survived by a hair,” Donaghe said. “But we are alive.”
Donaghe said he is now doing everything he can to save the beloved home. He was the first in line on Thursday when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) opened its doors to flood survivors.
“I dropped everything I had into this house money-wise, so I have no insurance,” Donaghe said. “This is going to take a while. It’s been in the family. It’s my responsibility to keep it there. God, I can’t explain why it happened. Everybody was praying for rain. And we got it.”
Donaghe said he is thankful for the people who have stepped up to help. Like the 100 people from the Kerrville Church of Christ who helped gut what is left of his home to see if it’s salvageable once it dries out.
“God is putting people in front of me as I need them, so he is working,” Donaghe said.
Donaghe said he still has a lot on his plate.
He will be going back and forth from his home to the bed and breakfast that was donated to him and his wife in Lukenbach, which is approximately 45 miles away.
Donaghe is also on the phone, talking with FEMA to help obtain some assistance.
“My first priority is my wife, my family and then we are here,” he said.
Donaghe said he is very grateful to everyone who has helped out, and that the best way to help not just him but all survivors is through things like gift cards.
Right now, he said, most people who have lost everything don’t have places to store the donated items.
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