Donations helping pay for hotel rooms for Georgetown flood victims

GEORGETOWN — Teri Hoffman and her husband James Bell left their RV park in Georgetown at 6 a.m. on July 5 to check on her father's house that was flooding in Bertram. But they had to eventually turn around because the roads were closed.

When they got back to their mobile home at the Goodwater RV Park by the San Gabriel River, it already was filling with water. Williamson County search and rescue teams were able to get their two dogs out of their RV and into a raft before the mobile home was swept away.

"I ain't never seen no RV float like that," said James Bell, 54. More than 12 inches of rain fell in the area July 5, swelling the South Fork of the San Gabriel River to flood stage.

Now Hoffman, 49, her husband, their three children and two dogs are all staying in a hotel rooms at the Woodspring Suites in Georgetown paid for by contributions to several nonprofits and churches, including the Georgetown Foundation, Christ Lutheran Church, Antioch Church, Helping Hands, Austin Mutual Aid and the nonprofit All Hearts and Hands.

The groups have paid for 36 hotel rooms for 52 people whose homes were destroyed by the flood, said Rob Dyer, the chief executive officer of the Georgetown Foundation. There is enough money to pay for hotel rooms for one more week, Dyer said. He said it would be helpful to have more donations to extend that time for another week or two.

"This would give us a little more time to find some funding to find something more permanent," he said.

That funding could include money to pay the deposit and first month's rent for families whose homes were destroyed, he said. Other donations, including cars, would also be helpful, he said. Donations can be made at the Georgetown Project website.

Hoffman said her family had no insurance on their RV because they couldn't afford it. Neither of them works because Bell is disabled from a work accident and Hoffman takes care of their 11-year-old son, 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old daughter. The children were at her father's house when the flooding happened, Hoffman said. She gasps for breath as she talks because her asthma medicine was lost in the flood. A friend was going to a drugstore to pick up some more.

The family, their two dogs — a pit-bull mix named Bella and a Dachsund-Corgi mix named Toby — all piled into one of their hotel rooms for a few minutes on Thursday afternoon. Bell had some food for them to eat from a room in the bottom floor of the hotel that was filled with donated tacos, pizzas, drinks, socks, suitcases, baby wipes and even toys for the kids.

Hoffman said they had only been living in the RV for a few months because they couldn't find any rental housing they could afford in the area. The family had moved to Georgetown from Shreveport, La., to be close to her family. She said she was amazed by the generosity of the Georgetown community after the flood.

"I've never seen so much help," she said.

The family went down to the donation room at the hotel later Thursday, when Bell hugged Shauna Thayer, a disaster coordinator who helped start the assistance group Hill County Disaster Relief during the flooding.

"She's my angel," Bell said. Thayer had been at the RV park during the flooding, he said, giving out telephone numbers to people seeking assistance.

As Bell stood in the donation room at the hotel, another man and his wife approached him. Diante Duram, of Cleveland, Texas, and his wife Regina said they had come to build Hoffman and Bell's family a tiny home. Duram said he had been moved to help after seeing a TikTok video that Bell had posted of the family's dogs being rescued from the flooding.

Duram, who has construction experience, initially said he had no materials to build the home and was soliciting donations through his Gofundme page. But a few hours later, Duram had secured a donated trailer to build the tiny home on and also had materials donated from a construction company, he said on his TikTok account called "TexasDaddyDuram."

Thayer said Friday that she volunteered to have the tiny home for the Hoffman and Bell family built on her land in Georgetown.

"I showed up during the flood and I stood shoulder to shoulder with these people and watched their homes float away," she said. "I feel like I am called to make sure all of these people are taken care of in every single way they need to be."