Camp instructor reflects on 1987 Guadalupe River flood

AUSTIN (KXAN) - It's difficult not to feel heartache when seeing images coming out of the recent catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River. But for some, it triggers even more. That was true for Kendra Wright, a Central Texan who in 1987 was a camp instructor at Camp Stewart during the devastating 1987 flood.

Meteorologist Kristen Currie spoke with Wright about her story, her feelings, her words to those who are enduring a trauma she knows firsthand. Below is a transcript of her conversation. Edits have been made for clarity.

Meteorologist Kristen Currie, KXAN News: The Independence Day floods that we've seen in Central Texas bring up a lot of memories of past tragic floods that we've seen in our backyard, and we know we have a lot of survivors who can attest to just how scary that moment is. Joining me today is Kendra Wright. Kendra, talk to me about your story. You are one of the survivors of the 1987 flood in that area, correct?

Kendra Wright, 1987 survivor: I was an instructor at Camp Stewart for Boys in the summer of 1987. And one night, I was out with some friends from camp, and it was raining, of course, pouring rain, but we were going over the low water crossing that we had to go to to get to camp. It was a little too high for us to go over, I think a foot, or whatever is. It was just a little too high. So we called camp and said, "Oh my gosh, we're afraid we're going to miss curfew." And that was our fear. It wasn't like, 'oh, we're going to be in a catastrophic flood.' You know, we were really afraid of missing curfew.

Wright: So we called, and these guys that had this giant pickup were like, we'll come get you. The wall of water hit while they were coming over, and one of them came back up the road maybe a half hour, 45 minutes later, in just his boxers, all of his clothes. I do not know how your clothes get ripped off of you in a flood, but I mean, it was just crazy. And he was like, Oh my gosh. I got rushed. I got down the river, it's floating down the river, and he's like, but "Where's Neil, the other guy?" And I was like, "Well, we don't know, where is he?" We called camp, he wasn't there, and we figured out he was in the river. And so we started yelling for him, and he was yelling, "I'm in the dang tree".

Wright: So Neil was in that tree all night, and there was a house on the side of the river, and they said we could have some blankets. And I was wearing soaking [clothes]. All of us were soaked, so we wore blankets and we wore garbage bags, and we stood outside all night yelling to Neil, "someone's coming, someone's coming. Helicopters will be here". And the next morning, that helicopter came, and they had to leave really fast, because the same helicopter that rescued my friend had to go and rescue a bus of children on that church bus.

Wright: It just gives me chills to even talk about it. They have so many people that just love them, that have never met them, and at least from people I know, there's just no one thinking anything but gratitude for anyone who took care of anyone during that flood, and any anyone who in any part, I know there's so many heroes, and I just wouldn't want... we all did the best we could. I wouldn't have anything to say except for it's all going to be okay, and it's just going to take a lot of time, and it's just really an impossible situation."

Currie: Kendra, thank you so much for sharing your story, for sharing your heart with all of our viewers. We really appreciate it.

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