It was a tranquil night at Blue Oak RV Park in Kerrville. Dozens slept to the soft sounds of the Guadalupe River, their campers lined up along the banks and set on the small island nestled midstream. Many had been eager to kick off the Fourth of July weekend in the Texas Hill Country, undeterred by the steady rain that fell through the night.
Bob Canales and his wife, Lorena Guillen, live near the campground, which they own, along with Howdy's Bar and Chill just up the hill next door. They felt sure the rain wouldn't amount to much more than a passing nuisance.
"Everyone was looking forward to a great weekend," Canales said. "Within the span of 45 minutes, they were wiped off the planet."
Canales says emergency responders arrived at 4 a.m. with urgent warnings: A wall of water was coming down the Guadalupe and everyone needed to get out — now. Canales and his wife ran into the rising river. They began pounding on RV doors and shouting through the dark, trying to wake everyone before raging waters swallowed the area.
As campers scrambled uphill to higher ground, Canales waded through water toward the park's small river islet, where the Burgess family was trapped. John Burgess, younger brother of Fort Worth country singer Pat Green, came to Kerrville with his wife, Julia, to pick up their daughter from a nearby camp. The couple had checked in earlier that evening with their two young boys and the family dog, Canales said.
But just a few hours later, Canales watched helplessly as the family remained stranded near the steep drop-off that separated the river island from the mainland.
"It was dark, only had a flashlight in one hand, and you're already knee deep in water and they were even deeper on the other side," he said. John Burgess clung to his boys as the river raged around them. Canales yelled: "Throw me the baby!"
"I understand why he didn't do it," Canales said. "What if the baby didn't make it? What if I didn't catch the baby?"
Canales pushed forward, trying to get closer, but the current caught him. It swept him nearly 100 feet downstream before he grabbed hold of a retaining wall at the edge of the campground. He pulled himself up and staggered back through the dark floodwaters. The family was gone.
"I remember seeing them standing by that tree," Canales said, pointing to a large cypress near the middle of the river. "That was the last time I saw that fine young man with his family."
John and Juila Burgess were found dead on Monday. Their boys are still missing. The couple's daughter was the only survivor, along with their dog.
Over the next few hours, Canales watched the river swallow everything in its path.
"You could hear transformers popping," Canales said. "Cabins up on the neighboring property were slamming together and ultimately seven or eight of them fell together like dominoes."
Cars drifted by in the current, their headlights still cutting through the darkness as people inside screamed for help.
"They were waving and screaming for help — and within a flash, they're gone," he said. "At that moment, there was just nothing you could do to save anyone or help anyone."
By dawn, the flood had climbed from the RV park below all the way up to Howdy's deck, leaving only splintered wood, scattered belongings and heartbreak behind. As of Friday morning, at least 120 people were dead and many more were still missing throughout the Texas Hill Country.
'Return to a sense of normalcy'
After the waters receded, the work began. First responders combed through debris along the Guadalupe, slowly recovering the dead. Some people were found right behind Howdy's. Canales joined the search, doing what he could to help.
He and his wife opened up the restaurant to feed and shelter search crews, with the goal of reopening to the public as soon as possible. The power was out, propane tanks were gone, but Canales soon learned of another unexpected loss: one of his employees died saving his family from the flood.
One of Howdy's kitchen workers, 27-year-old Julian Ryan, was among those caught in the deluge. As floodwaters surged into his family's mobile home nearby, Ryan punched out a window to help his mother, his fiancée and their children escape. But the shattered glass severed an artery in his arm. His family ultimately survived.
"A great guy," Canales said. "He was a very good singer."
A company out of Fredericksburg donated propane and Canales worked with an electrician to get the lights back on. The patio was also repaired. By Tuesday, the open sign was glowing again. The next night, they hosted a karaoke night, a quasi-memorial for Ryan, Canales said.
"It's been so important to have people return to a sense of normalcy," Canales said. "I think people see that we're going to survive this."
On Thursday night, Howdy's was bustling. People were laughing as they played pool. Canales sat at the bar with a drink in hand. He had spent the entire day clearing debris with volunteers from San Marcos. His wife was working behind the bar, talking with two other women. One of them spoke into her phone: "Siri, show me what Anderson Cooper looks like," as her friend laughed.
Along one wall, a row of donations had begun to pile up. A shirt that read "Kerrville strong" laid on a table. Journalists from around the country had swarmed the area in recent days. Reminders of the flood were inescapable. Mosquitoes were feasting as Canales sat on the patio, overlooking what was once the RV park.
"To be honest with you, I hadn't had time to slow down to really feel a whole lot," he said as he sipped on a glass of red wine. "I'm glad to be alive and I'm happy my wife is alive, but I feel very, very sorrowful about the people we couldn't help. But I'll deal with that.
"We're gonna bounce back," Canales said. "As Texans, we come back stronger than ever and we'll do it again. We owe that to the memory of the people that were lost."
Copyright 2025 KERA
