Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Mindy Wendele unpacks the response to the Texas flash floods on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
Communities and main industries in Central Texas had been just lately hit exhausting by lethal flash flooding. As the realm begins working to get better from the catastrophe, the native enterprise neighborhood and others have been turning out to assist.
Areas in Central Texas confronted extreme flooding through the lengthy Fourth of July vacation weekend, which was introduced on by heavy rainfall, devastating residents and companies alike. A minimum of 119 folks have died.
A photograph exhibits flooding attributable to a flash flood on the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, on July 5, 2025. ( RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP by way of Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
AccuWeather reported Monday that the harm and ensuing financial loss from the flooding may very well be within the $18-22 billion vary total.
HOW MOBILE WEATHER ALERTS WORK TO PROVIDE CRITICAL INFORMATION DURING NATURAL DISASTERS
The tenting trade is a significant trade in Kerrville and is without doubt one of the sectors that has been affected by the flooding.
Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mindy Wendele advised “The Claman Countdown” host Liz Claman that the financial affect of the tenting trade “is important with over $40 million in annual direct affect.”
“They’re a generator that’s such an exquisite, 100-year-old historical past of our trade right here within the Texas Hill Nation and Kerr County,” she mentioned. “And you are taking that out of our financial system and, clearly, there may be positively an affect.”
Kerr County’s prime trade is tourism, based on Wendele.
“We make use of over 1,100 of us in that trade and, as you’ll be able to think about, now that we’ve this devastation in our space, it’s going to affect lots of people,” she advised Claman. “And people are direct impacts, clearly. Then we’ve the households which can be a part of these 1,100 plus folks.”
An individual holds a candle studying “Kerrville robust” throughout a vigil for the victims of the floods over Fourth of July weekend, at Travis Park, in San Antonio, Texas, on July 7, 2025. (RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP by way of Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
Wendele mentioned enterprise and neighborhood leaders are “out on the streets proper now” and are “inventorying and surveying” companies “as they’ll to see what their wants are” within the wake of the flooding.
FAST-FOOD GIANT’S FOUNDER STEPS UP WITH MAJOR DONATION FOR DEVASTATED TEXAS FLOOD VICTIMS
Individuals from numerous professions and small enterprise homeowners have been turning out to assist impacted communities, based on the Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce CEO.
“We had a roomful of individuals in my constructing yesterday which have utterly taken off to return assist folks, significantly, every little thing from pet food to chainsaws to mucking out kitchens in order that these eating places and resorts can open,” she added.
The Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce created a “Rebuilding and Restoration Fund” this week to assist companies with their restoration efforts that folks have made donations to. It obtained authorization to begin sending out funds on Wednesday morning, based on Wendele.
Search and rescue employees dig by means of particles in search of any survivors or stays of individuals swept up within the flash flooding on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. ( Jim Vondruska/Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
“This time final week, none of us thought we’d be on this scenario,” she mentioned. “However right here we’re, and we’re all actually becoming a member of fingers and dealing very exhausting. The enterprise neighborhood takes care of the neighborhood.”
Firms like House Depot, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Apple, Airbnb and Lowe’s have additionally been offering assist to impacted Texas communities. Elevating Cane’s, the quick meals restaurant that focuses on hen fingers, just lately introduced, by way of its founder Todd Graves, it was making a $1 million donation to the Crimson Cross to help with the devastation.
MAJOR COMPANIES PROVIDE DISASTER RELIEF TO DEVASTATED TEXAS COMMUNITIES AFTER DEADLY FLOODING
Wendele mentioned “we’re so grateful” for the assist from firms like these.
Claman requested her what Texans impacted by the flooding want most apart from cash.
“We’d like prayers and we’d like present playing cards, and possibly in that order,” Wendele mentioned, noting the Chamber has arrange a system for “categorizing these present playing cards in order that we will hand these out to of us for fast assist.”
