After the Texas floods, there’s an outpouring of compassion and care
Rotary members lend their support to flood victims
In the hours before sunrise on 4 July, more than 10 inches of rain fell on Kerr County, Texas, USA. By some estimates, it added up to 100 billion gallons of water, more than the daily flow of water over Niagara Falls. The torrential downpour caused the Guadalupe River to rise 36 feet, killing more than 130 people and damaging thousands of properties.
In the days that followed, as he stepped in to lend a hand in the recovery, Larry Agee met a survivor who was distraught and still in shock. “He’d lost everything,” Agee said. The man was fixated on one loss in particular: The tall flagpole in front of his home had been swept away and he desperately wanted it back.

In the aftermath of the flooding in Texas, Larry Agee (right) and his son, Adam, raise a U.S. flag along the Guadalupe River.
Courtesy of Vanessa Agee
Agee has run into this sort of thing before. A member of the Rotary Club of Bonita Beach Sunset in Florida, Agee is the executive director and co-founder of Disaster Aid USA. The organization, which started as a Rotary club project, today has more than 90,000 volunteers nationwide and has responded — with expertise and essential equipment — to more than 90 domestic disasters. Kerr County was Agee’s 63rd domestic deployment, so this survivor’s stress-filled lament was nothing new for him.
“We are meeting these people at the most stressful moment in their lives,” Agee said. “If they want to talk for 30 minutes, we stop and listen to their stories and show compassion. When I see that tension begin to ease from their face, I know my job is done. The hard work may be just beginning, but my job is done.”
As they do in all these situations, Agee and the other volunteers with Disaster Aid USA coordinated with local officials and Rotary’s district leaders, taking advantage of the Rotary network that’s already in place. But they weren’t the only Rotary members offering to help. The Rotary Foundation has already approved a nearly $25,000 disaster response grant for District 5840, which will help pay for crucial equipment for responders and clothing and other necessities for survivors. And Rotary members from across the country were expressing their willingness to help.
“I’ve personally heard from 40 to 50 Rotary clubs who are reaching out and asking what they can do and telling us they have us in their prayers,” said Kristy Vandenberg, speaking by phone from Kerr County the week after the floods had hit. A past governor of District 5840 (which encompasses Kerr County), Vandenberg also spent 37 years with the Hill Country Chapter of the American Red Cross, including a stint as CEO.
“I believe we have about 2,100 first responders and disaster-trained individuals here to provide care,” said Vandenberg, who lost a close friend in the flood. “The big thing is to be ready to get people on some sort of plan for recovery. That’s what we’re focused on.”

Texas Rotary member Woody Lockhart, middle, past RI Director Suzi Howe, and others discuss flood relief efforts.
Courtesy of Maria Cortez-Ochoa
Vandenberg and current district leaders were coordinating with Disaster Aid USA to ensure that volunteers were directed to the organization’s website. “They have the credentials to get into some of the hard-hit areas because they have people who are specially trained,” she said.
Working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the organization also tracks volunteer hours and the dollar amounts those hours represent.
“In our first five days in Kerr County, we accomplished $150,000 worth of work for FEMA,” said Agee. “We turn that public assistance number in to the county, and that’s money the county doesn’t have to spend. That’s our way of giving back to the community.”
Vandenberg also emphasized that monetary donations were the most effective way for concerned Rotarians and others to help. “We’re telling all our clubs, put your funds here so they can go out from here,” she said. “If someone comes up with a bill for providing care or help, we’ll be able to reimburse them because we have this fund here.”

Lisa Herring, a member of the Rotary Club of Kerrville, Texas, works for Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Centers, which has deployed two mobile crisis centers to serve first responders and individuals affected by this tragedy. In the photo, two mental health professionals (in green uniforms) provide emotional support for community recovery team members.
Courtesy of Lisa Herring
As for Agee and his volunteers, they were assigned to clear debris from along a stretch of the Guadalupe River and do the dirty work of mucking and gutting: clearing mud from homes, stripping the interiors down to the studs, and remediating damage from water and mold. To accomplish this, they showed up with three excavators, nine skid steers, and a dozen chain saws. As they worked, they saw the sad remnants of what was lost: tennis shoes, a child’s bathing suit, a lifeguard’s visor. One body was also recovered from the stretch of land they were working on.
At one point, Agee choked back tears as he described what he experienced.
“Usually, I’ve had time to process these situations and put what I’ve seen in the back of my brain,” he said. “I haven’t put this one in the back of my brain yet.”
But Agee, working alongside his son, Adam, and his daughter, Vanessa, did find the distraught survivor’s flagpole and plant it back in his yard. A veteran, Agee always carries a flag in his truck, and he and Adam raised that flag on the pole as the man stood and watched. “That was important to him,” said Agee. “That was Day 1 of his recovery.”
The job was done, but the work continues.
Donate to the District 5840 Disaster Relief fund.
— August 2025
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