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Kingsland rebuilds after historic floods in 2018
In 2018, the Llano River overflowed, damaging people's homes and businesses and washing away the Kingsland bridge. Just like the bridge, the community has built itself right back up.
KINGSLAND, Texas - A year ago, the Llano River overflowed, damaging people's homes and businesses and washing away the Kingsland bridge.
Boat Town Burger and Bar lost its loading dock after only being open for three months but co-owner Karen Raven considers her family one of the lucky ones following the devastation. The community came together to clean-up and rebuild.
“Everything from the tiki bar down was under,” Raven said. “It just kind of takes the wind out of your sails but a year later everything has been rebuilt and the Kingsland community has been really strong.”
The biggest impact on the community was losing the FM 2900 bridge. Raven said instead of it taking ten minutes to get across drivers had to spend an hour driving all the way around.
Samuel Pearce with The Helping Center said there is a lot of work left to be done. The nonprofit serves about 1,000 pounds of groceries a day.
"I've got neighbors that are still in the repair phase that haven't finished yet it's taken a while and volunteers that live on the lake that have houses that just not got repaired so it has taken a while,” Pearce said. “The people we serve at the helping center are less privileged, the hungry folks who didn't have insurance."
Pearce said with the help of volunteers and donations, The Helping Center said they are able to assist families and make ends meet.
By Memorial Day weekend, the new FM 2900 bridge opened bigger and better, connecting Kingsland to the Hill Country.