Dykema associate Matt Maupin and his wife, Katie, looked forward to spending the 4th of July in their hometown of Kerrville. Their plan was to take in the Robert Earl Keen concert at Kerrville’s scenic Louise Hays Park, along the Guadalupe River, before joining relatives at a family ranch in nearby Hunt for smoked briskets.
But on the morning of the holiday, a relative alerted them to bad weather. From their San Antonio home, the couple turned on the news to see footage of their beloved Texas Hill Country ravaged by floods. They felt a tug to their hometown.
“We looked at each other and I said, ‘Let’s go,’” Maupin recalled. “Without hesitation, [Katie] went straight to the bedroom and started throwing stuff into a duffel bag.”
Maupin packed up their vehicle with a chainsaw, work gloves and other supplies before they hit the road. They’d come to rely on Katie’s brother-in-law, a member of the Hunt Volunteer Fire Department, to direct them.
For much of last week, Maupin aided recovery crews as they searched for the missing. Dykema, Maupin said, has been supportive of him taking time away from the office and even opposing counsel have accommodated his requests for more time. Maupin has encountered fellow recovery workers who he said were surprised that a lawyer was among them, slinging a chainsaw in the sweltering heat for upwards of 10 hours a day. They were also surprised when they learned that Katie is an elementary school principal, he said.
“This is our home,” Maupin said. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”
Matt and Katie were shocked when they got into the Hill Country on the 4th. The river was four or five times wider than they’d known it to be when they passed through Comfort on the way to Kerrville.
“There was that much overflow that had gone into low-lying fields nearby,” Maupin said. “I couldn’t fathom — if that’s what Comfort looks like, what is Kerrville going to look like?”
Masses of debris were piled on the riverbanks when they got to Kerrville. Emergency vehicles crowded the area. On the news, the couple saw that the park where the concert had been set to take place was at one point under so much water that even the tops of cypress trees couldn’t be made out.
They’d come to find that the rope swing hanging from a cypress tree that Matt and his friends would use to fling themselves into the Guadalupe River as kids is gone. The ice cream shop where his dad would take him to cap a fun day outside in the Texas heat is destroyed. The cherished places he hoped to take his own kids one day were wiped away.
Matt and Katie’s initial work involved removing debris from downed power lines so electricity could be restored and clearing roadways to churches that became aid centers. Then they set out to check homes and search debris piles for any survivors. They found none.
Maupin hopes that their recoveries at least provide closure for families.
He heard from a former law school classmate who said a dear friend lost her parents and 11-year-old niece. They’d recovered the bodies of the parents, but the niece was still missing, and the former classmate asked Maupin for help. He vowed to search the area where the adults were found. Before he could, the young girl’s body was discovered.
“It’s tragic that you’re finding a deceased person. It’s tragic that you’re finding someone’s loved one and that they’re no longer with us,” Maupin said. “It’s a horrible and sad thing, but there’s a sense of accomplishment that you were able to find them, and that you’re going to hopefully be able to give that family some semblance of closure with their loved ones, that they’re no longer guessing and they’re no longer wondering.”
“So, while it’s horrendous and it hits you hard, there’s a little bit about you that is thankful that you did find that person,” he said.
On the 6th, Maupin sent an email to his colleagues detailing the work he’d been doing and some of his observations.
“The devastation on the ground is hard to describe,” he wrote. “I watched families picking through piles of rubble that were once their homes, calling out for loved ones and lost pets. I saw businesses and places I frequented as a child be reduced to nothing but a heaping pile — if it was even still there. I saw people covered in mud checking in on their neighbors before getting help themselves. It will take years to fully recover.”
Maupin and his wife’s families and childhood homes were spared, he said, “by the grace of God.”
He shared a list of relief funds and organizations that he encouraged his colleagues to donate to.
Maupin left Wednesday morning to return to work. “The second” he drove into San Antonio, he said he “lost it” and wept. The normalcy of San Antonio juxtaposed with the destruction of Kerrville was too overwhelming.
“It just finally hit me and I started to really reflect on the impact and the damage,” Maupin said. “And that’s whenever we knew that the number of missing persons and even deceased people was going to be a lot.”
Maupin stopped at his San Antonio home to take a shower. He opted to wear a pair of Wrangler jeans and an untucked button-down shirt — “I kind of told myself, ‘That’s about the best I can do today.’”
Inside the lobby of the downtown San Antonio highrise where Dykema offices, Maupin observed a large colorful mosaic mural depicting a river. The water appears still, surrounded by lush plants and native animals.
Maupin thought to himself, “I saw that wildlife, and it’s dead.”
“I found dead animals everywhere, and I just about how serene and calm and peaceful this water scene is, and that just is not what I saw,” he said. “That’s what I should have seen, but that’s not what I saw.”
Maupin’s knee ached from twisting it. The back of his neck stung from a mean sunburn. His skin was irritated from ant bites.
And yet, he longed to be back in the recovery effort.
“I felt guilty for leaving,” he said. “I felt compelled to just drop everything and run back.”
Maupin put in office time Wednesday and Thursday before heading back out to Kerrville.
“I’ve enjoyed being a lawyer. I really have. I’ve gotten the chance to help some people, some incredible people as a lawyer. I’m proud of the work that I do as a lawyer,” he said. “But … doing this has been the most fulfilling thing I think I’ve ever done in my life, truly. I don’t know that anything could rival the feeling I get knowing I’m able to be out there and make myself useful and help on that ground level.”
How to Help
Below are the relief organizations Matt Maupin shared with his colleagues:
- Kerr County Flood Relief Fund
- Operated by The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country
- Aids vetted organizations assisting residents in Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and Comfort.
- Donate by mail to 241 Earl Garrett Street, Kerrville, Texas 78028 or online here.
- American Red Cross
- Supplying meals via mobile kitchens and accepting in-kind donations of non-perishables, hygiene items, diapers, cleaning supplies
- Drop goods at 855 Hays Street in Kerrville, or donate online at HelpSalvationArmy.org
- TEXSAR (Texas Search and Rescue)
- Volunteer-driven swift-water rescue and recovery missions in Kerr County seeks donations online.
- Southern Oaks Church
- Seeking gift cards for HEB, Walmart, Amazon, and Visa online so that families can get exactly what they need. Donate online here.
- Hunt Volunteer Fire Department
- Consisting of residents in and around Hunt, the Hunt VFD is the first line in providing aid and support to the local area when disaster strikes.
- Lost two fire vehicles due to the flooding. Donate here.
- Ingram Volunteer Fire Department
- Another volunteer group aiding residents and surrounding areas. Donate here.
- Kerrville Pets Alive!
- Helping care for and recover hundreds of displaced pets and livestock.
- Needs both physical and financial donations. To donate online, click here.