Central Texas students, schools step up to help after deadly floods

After flash floods killed at least 131 people across the state over Fourth of July weekend, students at Burnet High School began calling agriculture teacher Brandon Evans to ask how they could help.

The officers of the school’s FFA chapter—a student-led agriculture and livestock club—had ideas: collecting donations and lending a hand with property repairs and cleanup.

With Evans’ blessing, the students soon got to work. They repaired ranch fences, cleared debris from retirement homes and helped residents sift through the wreckage of their properties.

"It shows me their leadership," Evans said, "and how they want to put themselves out there and apply themselves."

The floods hadn’t hit Burnet County quite as hard as Travis County, and nowhere near as hard as Kerr County, but the rural locale still saw five deaths. As of Monday, one resident was still missing.

In the aftermath, students and school communities across Central Texas have stepped up in a big way to help with repair and recovery. Campus clubs have organized a supply drive, schools have created resource hubs and students have eagerly volunteered to help clean up debris.

At least five Austin-area students—Braxton Jarmon of Leander, Malaya Harmon of Marble Falls, and Abby Pohl, Linnie McCown, and Mary Stevens of Austin—died in the flooding, either locally or in Kerr County.

The toll has shaken local school communities, said Coleen Brighton, executive director of the Leander ISD Education Excellence Foundation, an independent entity that raises money for Leander schools.

"We have families that have been completely displaced," Brighton said. "For a lot of these families, the flash floods came quick and were unexpected."

The foundation has partnered with Hill Country Community Ministries on a fundraising drive to support local families.

As of Monday, the fund had raised $17,350. Each affected individual can receive up to $300 in basic services, Brighton said.

Leander’s district transportation network has also been shuttling people from impacted areas to showers and recovery service hubs, she said.

"Education is more than showing up in the classroom, and books and curriculum," Brighton said.

In the days after the floods, school and district leaders began personally checking on families, said Leander ISD board president Anna Smith.

"They started finding families and calling them," Smith said.

In Burnet, the FFA chapter continues to collect donations. Students from other states have even sent supplies to support the effort.

Evans said the storm’s devastating impact set in for his students at one home in particular. The family had lost everything and needed basics like socks and toothbrushes.

"To know that some of them possibly were some of their classmates, that’s where it kind of comes in and reality hits," Evans said.