The town of Hunt grapples with devastation after a “500-year flood,” leaving 12 dead and 13 rescued.
HUNT, Texas — The small town of Hunt has emerged as ground zero of the devastating flood disaster, with search crews continuing to find bodies as the community reels from what residents are calling a “500-year flood.”
Twelve residents were killed in the flooding, with thirteen people rescued from the hardest-hit areas. The Casa Bonita development was particularly devastated, where half of its riverfront cabins were completely flattened by the rushing waters.
At least 121 people have died across the region and more than 170 are missing after the floods that struck in the early morning hours of July 4.
Louise Parsley, a Houston resident whose family has owned property in Hunt along the Guadalupe River for 100 years, described the unprecedented nature of the disaster.
“This is completely unprecedented. I mean this is like a 500-year flood,” Parsley said. “I have friends who have bought properties up here and they will build houses like 20 years above the 100-year-floodplain and they’re gone.”
The flooding has transformed Hunt into what observers are describing as a war zone, with the town bustling with search crews, first responders, and volunteers working around the clock. DPS checkpoints have been established to keep out those who don’t live in the area as recovery efforts continue.
Search crews on horseback have been combing through properties along the North Fork of the Guadalupe River, where water continues to move quickly but safely following the initial flooding. The ongoing search for missing persons represents what officials describe as difficult and painstaking work.
The tragedy has hit particularly hard in a community that Parsley says is “like a Houston annex” due to the many local families who have properties there. She will attend the first of several funerals for friends lost in the disaster Friday.
The recovery effort continues as Hunt struggles to come to terms with the scope of the catastrophe that has left the small riverside community devastated and searching for answers in the aftermath of the historic flooding.