KERRVILLE, Texas – Two and a half months after the July 4 flooding demolished homes and businesses in the Texas Hill Country, business owners like Lorena Guillen are left with the damage and bills to rebuild.
Guillen owns Howdy’s Bar & Chill, and she owned Blue Oak RV Park before the flood swept the RVs away. She is now doing everything she can, with help from the people of Kerrville, to get back on her feet.
“It’s just the community getting together again to help each other, and that has been, from day one, the only source of help that we have gotten,” Guillen said.
KSAT has shared some of Guillen’s story before, right after her RV park was swept away, and one family unfortunately did not make it out of the flood alive.
Guillen also attended a Small Business Administration meeting in Kerrville, weeks after the flood. She is still trying to get more funding, but she said it has been difficult to get enough to rebuild.
“It has been about eight weeks now that I’ve been dealing with the SBA, and I’m still not clear whether I’m going to get a loan or not,” Guillen said. “It’s been paperwork after paperwork. It has been absolutely a nightmare of paperwork.”
Corey Weaver, a musician who frequently plays at Howdy’s Bar & Chill in Kerrville, put together a benefit concert to help offset the cost of rebuilding.
“They lost 28 trailers in the flood,” Weaver said. “We’ve seen so many music benefits have happened, but I want to do something for this one, for Kerrville, for Howdy’s, for the Blue Oak RV Park.”
However, Guillen is not quite ready to start completely rebuilding the RV park yet. Not only will she need more funding, but she also has her heart set on another mission.
“To refund my residents for the rent they paid for July,” Guillen said. “That has been my goal since the beginning.”
It’s a goal that people who attended the benefit concert hope to help Guillen reach.
“I really hope to get these people back to where they were,” said Erin Burgess, an attendee.
“We want to see this place get back up on their feet,” Weaver said. “They’ve been so much fun for the arts and for the community, and so now we’re just trying to get back and make sure that they survive.”