Christopher Moss woke up around 3 a.m. to his mom banging on his bedroom door. She heard a gurgling sound coming from her bathroom, and when she realized what was happening, water had already started to seep in through the walls.
He said the water rose pretty quickly and before he knew it, his Sandy Creek home of 25 years had started to float.
“I don’t know how we got lucky for it to float to that spot, but that is where it stopped,” he said, pointing to his home on the opposite side of the road. “Thank God we got out.”
Moss was home with his 63-year-old mother and seven animals at the time. He said the water reached his chest before it receded. All of them escaped through the front door.
Moss tried to salvage what he could, but there's not much left of his home. Many of his neighbors are in the same situation: no home, no electricity and no food or water.
Moss lives outside Leander in northwestern Travis County. The neighborhood was one of the hardest hit during floods over the weekend in the Austin area. The bridge that connects the neighborhood to the main road was nearly washed out, stranding many residents.
The nearby Round Mountain Baptist Church was filled Tuesday as if it were a Sunday morning service — except tables were piled with clothes, shoes, baby items and pet supplies.
The church has become a refuge for flood survivors in the area. Lead volunteer coordinator Katherine Waggoner said it will continue to offer support to the community for as long as necessary.
“We are open for anybody in the area that has been affected by the floods," she said.
In addition to providing food and supplies, the church was organizing transportation to another location with showers. Volunteers helped people find more permanent places to stay, while staff from Integral Care, the Travis County mental health provider, offered support.
H-E-B had set up red canopies outside the church, with volunteers packing and loading recovery kits filled with food, water, gatorade and cleaning supplies.
Spokesperson Johnny Mojica said community service is at the heart of the company’s founding.
“H-E-B initially started in Kerrville, Texas,” he said. “That is where we were founded back in 1905 by Florence Butt. She would feed the homeless on the banks of the Guadalupe River and that is what really started the spirit of H-E-B — we invest in and support the communities across the state.”
The company returned to its hometown after the floods, in addition to helping out in areas closer to Austin. Mojica said volunteers have handed out hundreds of kits this week in the Leander area alone.
Moss said the next several days and weeks are going to be baby steps; it's figuring out insurance information for his home and his car, and trying to rebuild his life. He and his mom are staying with family. So for now, he’s got a roof over his head and food in his belly. His family and pets are safe.
On Tuesday, he spent the afternoon with his sister trying to help his neighbors where he could, including shuttling people up to the church to get supplies.
“It's the simplest thing I could do,” Moss said. “I may have lost everything in the flood, but I’ve still got everything I need. There are people out here who don’t, and if I can help them and that makes the biggest difference, that is all I care about.”
