North Texas community rallies with donations to support Central Texas flood victims
The images from Central Texas have been heartbreaking. Homes are underwater, roads are washed out, and families are left with nothing. Here in North Texas, local volunteers are continuing to do everything they can to help.
At Guitars & Growlers in Richardson and Flower Mound, donations are piling up.
"We definitely want to be able to help. I think all of us do," owner Amy Baker said.
Baker said customers are showing up with clothing, canned goods, and pet food, hoping to bring comfort to families facing the unthinkable.
"The families and all the people that have been affected, it's just been so devastating," she said. "We had a lot of people that we know that were there for vacation."
Her customer, Patrick Breedlove, is one of those people. He was staying nearby when the storms moved in.
"Some of us were in tiny homes and some of us were in RVs, and it rained most of the week, and on Thursday night at 6 p.m. it started raining really hard," he said.
They hunkered down, hoping for the best.
"The road is starting to flood and then about 4 o'clock the next day, it finally stopped, and they were warning us we couldn't leave because the roads were shut off," he said.
Thankfully, they were safe, but by Saturday morning, they started seeing all the missing person posts, many tied to Camp Mystic, where young girls had been swept away.
Then they learned Texas country music star Pat Green, whom they were supposed to see in concert that night, had lost his little brother in the flood.
"We were all just completely devastated," he said. "We couldn't believe it, and it's all we talked about Saturday until we left on Sunday. We all had our kids at camps like that growing up and you would never think anything like that would happen."
Through the heartbreak, this community is finding a way to help.
Guitars & Growlers will be taking donations until Friday at 12 p.m. Then everything will be packed up and driven straight to Central Texas.
"This restaurant, bar is such a neighborhood bar and when they do something, everybody comes together," Breedlove said.
"I feel very blessed to be a part of especially this community and seeing everybody want to help is incredible," Baker said.
