‘We’re rationing ramen and cereal’ | 8 adults and 6 children from Corpus Christi are still stranded at a Frio resort after floods destroyed their only access road.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Sunday afternoon, Katey Hoffmaster had her bags packed, ready to return home after a weekend trip to the Frio Country Resort on the Concan River. She went to bed thinking about her drive home the next day. Then she was awoken by the rain.
“The storm shook the house,” Hoffmaster said. “We received three separate warnings, and then the resort told us in the morning we couldn’t leave.”
The singular access road to the resort, aptly named River Road, has flooded, and the waters are travelling across too fast for a safe exit. In an abundance of caution after the flooding in Kerrville, authorities asked them to shelter in place.
“It’s completely flooded,” Hoffmaster said. “You can’t drive through it, the road has broken off in pieces, there’s trees everywhere — It’s bad.’
The road is still overflowing, but the danger has mostly passed. Boredom, hunger, and hygiene are the challenges now. She says her party threw away all perishable food items Sunday in preparation for check out Monday morning, leaving them with little to eat beyond ramen, cereal, and a couple boxes of macaroni and cheese.
“We have kids with us,” Hoffmaster said. “It’s hard to explain rationing to a child. The kids asked us, ‘what are we eating?’ and we’re like, ‘I don’t know’.”
She said the last 48 hours have been challenging, but a local drive-through beverage business had water and ice, then they ran out as well.
On Tuesday morning, a Blackhawk helicopter arrived to drop off MRE’s, bottled water, and hygiene kits. Hoffmaster isn’t sure who the owning agency was but believed it to be the Texas National Guard.
“The resort that we’re staying at was very helpful,” she said. “They messaged me to ask for specific items that we need that are essential and they made sure we were given those.”
Hoffmaster, whose father was a rescue diver in the Coast Guard, said she hasn’t cracked open her MRE yet, but that the kids love them. An emergency worker who dropped off supplies told them that the currents on the road were too strong to drive through, even for a lifted pick-up truck. The worker told her it was simply not worth the risk.
“We have a Forte and a Charger,” Hoffmaster said. “We can’t risk that.”
They’ve been told noon on Wednesday is the earliest they’ll be allowed to leave, but continued rains may push the deadline back.
“It just rained 10 minutes ago,” she said. “We’ve got to play it by ear.”
The on and off rains are incredibly worrisome for the group, especially with what just happened in Kerrville.
“It’s terrifying,” Hoffmaster said. “It’s hard seeing people have their little kids go up to the river and play in it and it’s scary because in the blink of an eye it can all be over.”
She says it’s been a challenge, and a scary one at that, and her family hopes that lessons are learned after the massive amounts of flooding in Texas this year.
“Maybe they’ll find a way to make a road back to civilization where we don’t have to cross the river, or make the bridge higher,” Hoffmaster said. “How is there only two ways in and out of here and they’re below water level? I definitely hope they figure something out to have us able to go through the backroads, so this never happens again.”
In the meantime, she says they’re sleeping a lot to pass the time, as they count down the hours until they’re allowed to return home.
“Never wanted to go to work before so bad,” she laughed.