Signs of destruction still mark the south-central Texas landscape since raging floodwaters devastated the region on July 4, 2025, killing 139 people.
Local restaurant owner, Lorena Guillen, recently told Fox Weather that the flooding happened so fast.
"In three hours, everything was gone," she remembered. "It was extremely hard to see that water rising so high and hearing the people screaming for help. That was the thing that haunts me and haunts a lot of people."
With local sales in the area down 40%-50% below average, she explained that business is not what it used to be. She also said her family's RV park, where four guests died, will not reopen.
"It's hard, it's very difficult to notice it's a year already," she said. "It's just very, very difficult to think about it, but we're here, and we'll get through it. Together as a community, I think we'll survive."
Twenty-five girls, two teenage counselors, and the camp director died at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.
On Friday, on the eve of the flood's anniversary, the family of eight-year-old Cile Steward, the camper whose body has not been recovered, shared a statement thanking several Texas leaders and agencies and the people who are still "working to bring our precious daughter home."
Camp Mystic is shuttered and recently filed for bankruptcy, but other camps have welcomed children back this summer, and people have returned to the Guadalupe River to fish, to kayak, to play.
As The Texas Tribune reports, there are other signs of normalcy in the area. Crider's Rodeo and Dance Hall on the river was rebuilt in time for its 101st summer season. The post office in Hunt, where the 1,400-pound safe washed away, is going back up, and the Ingram Little League now has new fields.
More than 90 new flood warning sirens that Camp Mystic directors raised money for now stand ready to alert people, while six sirens have been installed that are expected to be paid for with state funds.
The system reportedly includes sirens, rain gauges and mobile alerts designed to give residents more time to react to rising water.
Officials have emphasized that it is designed to be integrated and automated where possible, meaning alerts can be triggered based on threshold conditions from gauges, while still allowing emergency officials to manually activate warnings when needed.
