HUNT, Texas – Before the July 4 flood, the Hunt Preservation Society was already an established local nonprofit. So when disaster hit, money was able to pour in immediately.
The group quickly created a committee to help allocate those recovery funds to community members.
“Our focus has been here in Hunt and Ingram, really the Hunt (Independent School District) boundaries,” said Lisa Field, Hunt Preservation Society’s community allocations committee chair.
Over the last year, the committee has taken in about $9.2 million and has distributed $6.3 million.
“We got the help of an organization called StormWise, and they came in and helped set up a database for us. We needed data to know what everyone needed,” Field said.
Just days after the flood, they held an open house to figure out what their neighbors needed most.
“It was the first time since the flood the whole community had come together at the same place. It was gut-wrenching and heartwarming at the same time to be together,” Field said.
They quickly figured out housing was priority number one.
“We were able to create a home repair team and start building back people’s homes. Then Airbnb.org and St. Peter’s and Hunt Preservation Society, we created this temporary housing program, so we’re still paying rent for people who are not back in their homes,” Field said.
The Hunt Preservation Society hired case workers and assigned 42 total homes to either repair or renovate. In a year, they’ve already finished 27.
Field said they have a specific focus on what she calls “legacy homes,” houses that have been owned by the same family for 50 years or more.
“It was their great grandparents who built the home, and it’s just sickening to all of us to see those not be built back. So we’re really fighting hard to try to bring some more attention to those homes,” Field said.
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has been a major asset to the Hunt Preservation Society.
“As our case managers would get homes approved through the Community Foundation program, then they would be assigned to us. And this is obviously happening all throughout the county as well,” Field said.
The Hunt Preservation Society has also stepped up to help businesses.
“We realized very quickly that there were some programs to help businesses, but there were some gaps. We decided we needed to develop a program to help fill in those gaps, which is where our Hunt CPR program came from,” Field said.
Another big project was building a brand-new community center. Construction started in October, and the ribbon cutting was in May.
“We’ve had the UGRA (Upper Guadalupe River Authority) come out and speak about the flood sirens. So any of those kinds of things that our community needs to gather for, town halls or anything like that,” Field said, showing KSAT around the new space.
She said a big upgrade for the community will be the ability to hold voting in the community center.
“The voting has been happening for our area at the Hunt School. It’s a nightmare for us to deal with security and everything. And so now it’s going to be happening here. The county already came out to approve it,” Field said.
The center will also be student-focused.
“For forever, kids get out of school, and they walk down to the Hunt Store and they do their homework while they wait for their parents to come pick them up. So we wanted to just kind of have a temporary space for them to do that if they wanted to,” Field said.
She said the space will also be used as a hub for any future emergencies, so the volunteer fire department and school don’t get overwhelmed.
“There have been so many acts of amazing generosity and kindness. And I think ultimately, it has brought our community so much closer together,” Field said.
With a whole lot more work to do, Field will continue to carry that gratitude.
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