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Ingram family works to clean 30-year-old shop damaged in Central Texas floods

Hill Country shop flooded by July 4 storm rallies to rebuild
Hill Country shop flooded by July 4 storm rallies to rebuild 03:45

For the past 30 years, Lamps & Shades has offered customers a unique shopping experience in the Hill Country. Located off the Guadalupe River in Historic Old Ingram Loop, the shop was once filled floor to with lighting, decor and trinkets. 

But on July 4, Central Texas storms flooded the river, causing the store to flood. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the store's owners, Johanna and Wright Rouselle and their daughter, Amy Grace Ulman, were hard at work cleaning up the mud, salvaging what could be salvaged and taking it all in.

Ulman described the experience as "unthinkable."

"Just getting your head around how this happened in the middle of the night with no warning," Ulman said. "People asleep in their beds and just washed away."

Ulman spoke with a CBS Texas crew during a break from pulling items out of the muck left behind by the river. On Friday, the shop was filled with nearly four feet of water. 

"There are so many tragedies around the world all the time, and it's hard to take it all in," Ulman said. "But when it hits close to your home and the people you know, it's just different."

Inventory isn't all Ulman's family has lost. Some of their friends are among the more than 100 victims of the catastrophic floods. Ulman said this unimaginably hard time for her family has been met with an outpouring of support for the whole community.

"There's a lot of amazing communities around the world, but this is special," Ulman said. "People really are just showing up out of every corner."

Adding to the hardship, Ulman said her parents just learned their insurance doesn't cover floods.

Still, she said her family will figure it out and they're hopeful about the future. But she said she hopes the stories of heartache and resilience from the Hill Country won't soon be forgotten.

"I know in a couple of weeks, the world will have moved on," Ulman said. "I just hope that people keep praying and keep the support up."

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