FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration, in coordination with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, are opening a Disaster Recovery Center in Kerrville on Thursday, July 10, to help homeowners, renters and business owners impacted by the flooding.

A major flood event also struck the Texas Hill Country in July of 1987 after a series of 17 thunderstorms moved slowly, in succession, over the headwaters of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. Anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of rain fell on the flood-prone areas, now deemed “Flash Flood Alley,” according to a National Weather Service report.

The survival of people in local camps and low-lying areas depended not on official evacuations but on whether they were paying attention, on their own, to weather alerts in the middle of the night.

Sunday is a day of prayer across Texas. But as many filed into churches, first responders and volunteers filed into Kerr County, holding out up in their search and rescue efforts.

Just days after floodwaters raged through the Guadalupe, parts of the riverbed lay dry – and the Texas Hill Country community must now face where it goes from here.

The county’s largest city, Kerrville, declined to participate in a joint grant application that would have required a $50,000 contribution. Meanwhile in the nearby community of Comfort, a long, flat-three minute warning sound signifying flood danger helped evacuate the town of 2,

Before hundreds of first responders and volunteers from around the country came to help, it was the local residents of Texas Hill Country who faced down a deadly wall of water along the Gaudalope River and witnessed terrifying scenes.

The recent disaster has some thinking back to a similar tragedy almost 40 years ago that occurred in the same month and nearly the same place.