Family river house survives 1987 flood, gets hit again in 2025 flood

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The recent tragedy in Kerrville shares heartbreaking similarities to a flooding event along the Guadalupe River in 1987. Many Texans remember that day. Some even lived through it.

Meteorologist Kristen Currie spoke with Austin resident Brian Matheny, who remembers evacuating his family's river home along the Guadalupe 38 years ago. Only to relive a very similar nightmare over the July 4th holiday.

Below is a transcription of their conversation. Edits have been made for clarification.

Meteorologist Kristen Currie, KXAN News: Living through one catastrophic flood is rare, but living through two events in the same area is a story not told by many. Brian, unfortunately, you are one who has history of living through two catastrophic events. Take me back to the 1987 Guadalupe River flood.

Brian Matheny: At that time, I was eight, and my brother and I actually caught the Greyhound bus from Austin to go up to Kerrville, where my grandparents had built a river house for our family, and we were excited to spend a couple of weeks up there with them. I remember being on the bus and driving up through Fredericksburg into Kerrville. They happened to drop us off, and the bus stop ended up being right there by the old drive-in movie theater. And so I vividly remember waiting outside. I remember seeing the rain and not really thinking much of it, but it had been raining most of the drive up.

My grandparents picked us up, and we went further down the road. They live kind of in between Kerrville and Ingram. The property is 500 yards up from the Guadalupe itself. And so it has riverfront access. We used to swim and canoe, and that's really where we spent all of our summers. And I remember going to bed that night, not thinking at 8 years old, anything about the amount of rain we've been having, and the fact that it was still raining and raining.

Once we went to bed, I remember very vividly hearing banging on the front door, and my grandmother went downstairs, turned all the lights on to see what it was. And, fortunately, our property was right next to a volunteer fire department. It was a firefighter from the Ingram Fire Department. And he was outside, with his large SUV, and just explained to my grandparents, like, the river is rising and you have to go, you have to get out now. And my grandmother was never comfortable leaving the house unless she was fully presentable. And he said, "No, like you've got a nightgown on. Grab the boys. You guys have to go." And David threw us in his fire SUV and we ended up going out to the Ingraham fire hall and spending the night with my grandmother's brother further into town, a bit safer and away from the water.

But I remember going back to the property the next day, and just being so overwhelmed that if you think about being on a hill and the slope that it takes to get to the river. We had at that point, probably two and a half inches of water in the first floor. So thankfully, it was a minor cleanup, given what it could have been. But at that age, understanding the breadth that the river had to rise, it really overwhelms you. And, just thinking about the kids who were a little older than me at that time, who went through that.

We continued to go out there and spend summers there and build memories as a family. And we could still, two or three years later, find an old refrigerator door or an old washing machine tub that was still in the riverbanks.

Currie: Fast forward to today, with the recent events of the Guadalupe River flooding again. What was that like for you?

Matheny: We were actually out of town, so thankfully, no one was at my grandparents' house. And I remember getting the KXAN alerts, getting the news alerts about the weather. And I just remember watching all the updates and being on the app and seeing the video and seeing the footage. I had this feeling that... I knew that it wasn't going to be good. And I knew it was going to be that much more devastating than what we went through in '87.

I was messaging my father at the time, who is kind of the caretaker of the property now. And he wouldn't really say anything. Every time I asked him what was going on in Kerrville, he said, "Look, get back on Sunday and we'll talk about it".

When we got back Sunday night, I called, and he just started to walk me through the devastation that had happened at the house. And thankfully, everyone in my family was safe. But to hear everything that happened at Camp Mystic, to hear everything that happened on my grandmother's property... her back deck was completely washed away, the fact that water reached the second story of the home, how it blew the front door off. It blew the garage door off. You really think about the power of the storm and how much higher all of that got.

And so I went out with him on Monday, and we started to look at everything. And damage to the home, obviously, is tough, and navigating the feelings of losing a place that was so special growing up is obviously a lot to work through. But when you start to see the loss of life... you see paramedics, you see the rescue crews starting to take someone out. That really puts everything into a different perspective.

We spent the day there cleaning up the house and trying to get what we could done. And it just continues to give you pause. They recovered so many folks that were lost directly behind her house. You had to stay focused on the task at hand, because you get overwhelmed and consumed with the reality that so many families are facing. It was really difficult to grasp just the magnitude.

The one thing that I think really helped propel us through that day was just the kindness of strangers. I wasn't able to take my car because they had far too many vehicles with recovery efforts going on. So I walked from the end of the road down to her home, and was stopped by a gentleman who said, "Hey, I'm here from Beaumont. I felt the need to come. Do you need help? Is your property at the end of the road?" And I said, "You know, our family's is and he said, "Do you need help?" And I said, "Honestly, I don't know what I would tell you to do at this point." And he said, "Well, I want to walk with you. I want to walk with you because I can't go home. Don't make me beg to help." And so he and his colleague came down and spent two days shoveling mud and taking down drywall. The kindness of local churches bringing us meals to keep us going, and folks just really connecting. To feel that personally, it was so different because we managed on our own the first time, two inches of water. I just really tried to focus on the kindness and goodness of those who were trying to help.

Currie: Brian, thank you so much for opening up your heart and telling your story to our viewers. Wishing you all the best in recovery.

Matheny: Thank you so much, Kristen.