Family devastated by Wimberley flood raises money for TEX SAR
It has been almost one year since an historic flood in Wimberley destroyed hundreds of homes and killed several people.
Cristen Carey Daniel said her mother sent her a text message at 11:15 p.m. the night of the Wimberley flood to show her how high the water had climbed.
She didn't find out their house was swept away by the rain swollen river until the next day.
“Cristen fell to her knees and cried when she saw the house and I saw her. Really it sunk in at that moment,” said Alan Daniel, Cristen Carey Daniel’s husband.
That moment is one Cristen will never forget. It was then she realized her mother, father, sister, brother-in-law and nephew did not make it out of the flooded Blanco River.
Over the next several weeks, Cristen and Alan worked with volunteers at Texas Search and Rescue to look for all of the people they lost in Wimberley.
“People don't realize that when you lose somebody, the comfort that comes with knowing that others are trying to find them,” said Alan.
Still, Cristen's nephew, Will Charba, has not been recovered.
“We know they're all together in a better place and that's not the hard part for me. It's just the missing them and wanting to call when the kids get a good report card or something like that,” said Cristen.
Now a year after saying a painful goodbye to so many of their loved ones Cristen and Alan are hoping to help others who might find themselves in a similar situation.
“We want to bring some sort of redemption to this terrible tragedy,” Cristen said.
That's why they joined in the lost creek dads club chili cook-off which benefits Texas Search and Rescue or TEX SAR.
“Cristen's team is the Chili's Angels and we are the Grateful Red so we are having a massive competition,” said Alan.
TEX SAR is the official organization for volunteers certified for search and rescue. Thousands from all over the country joined them in Wimberley to find the missing and help Cristen and her family carry on with their lives.
“They’re the ones that will be continuing on with this effort long beyond our family. They've been behind us for years, so we want to get behind them,” said Alan.
The support they received from their faith, friends, family, neighbors, even strangers got them through this last year and now they are stronger than ever before.
“We want the public to know we're okay, we're moving on. You can rest assured that we want you to move on, but we're going to still look, we're going to still search,” Alan said.
Cristen and Alan encourage business owners to sign up and keep employees safe by going to www.alertmedia.com and they ask the public to sign up for alerts at www.warncentraltexas.org.