At least 135 people died from catastrophic Central Texas flash floods on July 5, 2025. Hundreds of people lost their homes and suffered thousands of dollars in damage. More than a year later, survivors are still demanding the help they were callously denied after losing so much.
The flash floods were a devastating disaster, amplified by climate change but made deadlier by a lack of government disaster preparedness. The region still has not recovered because the federal, Texas state and county governments chose to do as little as possible to help survivors after the floods. They left survivors to organize their own recovery and debris cleanup, and forfeited their responsibility to aid their people onto non-profits.
Then-head of the Department of National Security Kristi Noem, whose agency coordinates disaster relief, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other politicians congratulated themselves for how FEMA and the Texas government responded to the floods. FEMA claims that they handled this disaster faster than ever before. In reality, FEMA failed to answer 90% of flood survivors’ calls for help on July 7. The majority of survivors had to figure out their own survival and housing in the aftermath of the floods.
The response to the floods was extremely inadequate everywhere, but areas outside of Kerrville received even less attention and help. Sandy Creek is an unincorporated community in Travis county where the floods killed 10 people and destroyed hundreds of homes. In this community, the floods left behind a significant amount of debris that had to be cleared before any kind of rebuilding could begin or residents could return home. Some properties had several feet of wood, trash, building parts, and even cars, piled on top of home foundations and around standing homes. In the vast majority of cases, contractors paid by the county only removed debris if it was piled by the road.
The state government has a 2,200 strong State Guard that it could have deployed to remove debris. Instead, the Guard that were in Sandy Creek stood around the disaster response center while volunteers and others did the intensive debris clean-up work.
Just months after the floods, in October, Greg Abbott deployed the State Guard to destroy the shelters of unhoused people less than an hour away from Sandy Creek, in Austin. The State Guard was rapidly deployed to destroy 48 encampments unhoused people built around the city to survive in. This destructive operation is particularly haunting because those soldiers could have been carrying away debris and rebuilding working people’s lives in Sandy Creek and Kerrville, but instead destroyed the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors.
The people and the people’s party stepped up to help
Despite the government’s neglect, working people from around Texas were able to remove the majority of the flood debris by October. Thousands volunteered to do hard manual labor for hours in the Texas heat for no financial benefit. This display of working class solidarity is a powerful reminder that most workers care more about their neighbors than profit.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation in Texas was part of the volunteer effort to clean up flood debris in the months after the floods. Immediately after the floods, we worked to remove debris in Kerrville and Sandy Creek, the two particularly hard hit areas. In Sandy Creek we removed debris nearly every week alongside other volunteers for months. We also worked to help residents move furniture out of flooded homes, and eventually cooked hot food for residents after the other organizations that did so left Sandy Creek.
We saw the success of volunteer work, but also its limitations. The lack of organization and equipment limited how much work volunteers could get done and even created dangerous situations. Further, the burden was placed on survivors to find the right organizations to send volunteers. Flavia O., a survivor and organizer in Sandy Creek, stated at a PSL organized community meal that she asked state and Travis county officials “Why did I have to organize for volunteers, for people to come to my home? Why did I have to do that? Why did I have to create a volunteer post for my friends who almost lost their lives and everything they owned?”
Unlike our current government, a socialist government, a government of the people, would support volunteer efforts like what happened in Sandy Creek and Kerrville by providing the tools, organization, and disaster response professionals to make their work more effective.
Compared to the scale of the floods, the help we provided in Sandy Creek was small, but it is a meaningful demonstration that socialists are committed to helping our class, the working class, recover from and prevent disasters. Our solidarity with flood survivors is in direct contrast to the complete negligence shown by Republican and Democratic politicians.
Scammers, and unaccountable non-profits.
Numerous organizations were involved in the wake of the floods. Some genuinely helped, while many others viewed the disaster as a money making operation. Desperation created by a lack of an organized response created a situation that scammers and even legal non-profits could take advantage of. Individuals and organizations from around the country flocked in to make big promises and leave town with donations.
This became such a problem that the government itself warns survivors about the prevalence of scams. Their solution? Tell flood survivors to protect themselves from dishonest contractors and to “exercise extreme care with anyone offering to help.” Survivors would not have to worry about scams if the government actually met their needs in the wake of disasters!
Texas could have used its $24.3 billion Texas “Rainy Day Fund” to pay for rebuilding, but they chose to leave survivors to fend for themselves. Cheryl DeHut, a Sandy Creek community member, asked the question many in Texas have asked, “The state was sitting on a massive rainy day fund. We had a very rainy day. But that’s not there to help us. Well, then who’s it for if not for people who live in Texas who really need it?”
Politicians have worked for decades to destroy government disaster relief programs, offering non-profits as the replacement. This has created a situation where the burden is placed on survivors to apply for help from dozens of non-profits and sort through hundreds of contractors to collect the money and work they need to rebuild their lives. Emergency housing and disaster reconstruction should be centralized and provided to everyone who needs it!
Travis County (home of Sandy Creek) has no available money set aside to help rebuild survivors’ homes. Instead, it relies on an unaccountable non-profit called the Central Texas Community Foundation largely led by wealthy CEOs to provide survivors the money they need. Survivors had to organize and had to repeatedly pressure Travis county officials for aid. After several tense town hall meetings with Travis county officials and representatives of the Foundation, survivors started receiving donations from the group in November 2025, four months after the disaster. In most cases, these donations, while far from the total amount needed to rebuild, are the most substantial they have received to this day.
A year later Sandy Creek still hasn’t rebuilt
The anniversary of the flood brought the community together for a memorial where survivors grieved for their loved ones and also proclaimed how incomplete rebuilding is. Many survivors could not afford to rebuild and had to leave. Many more survivors cannot afford to rebuild their old homes but refuse to leave their hometown.
Brandy Gerstner and her family members remain on the same land where they lost their homes a year ago. They are still living in the same temporary trailers. Brandy is now an organizer in the Sandy Creek Alliance and says “approximately 74 homes need repairing or rebuilding and only 4 homes have been brought in since the flood.” Ashlee Willis, who is also an organizer in the Sandy Creek Alliance and a board member of the Travis County Recovery Alliance, said that there is “approximately $35-$45 million left in unmet need in the county, the hardest hit of which was Sandy Creek.”
Disaster relief will never be adequate while donations for working class flood survivors are entirely controlled by extremely wealthy people. We demand a fully funded disaster recovery agency, disaster prevention systems, and long term plans to rebuild after every disaster. The people don’t want unreliable charity from the rich. We want to have our needs met by an economic system and a government that is led by working people and works for all of us!
Photo: PLS member joins other volunteers to help debris from flooded homes. Photo: Liberation News.
