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 have been lately hit laborious by lethal flash flooding. As the realm begins working to get better from the catastrophe, the native enterprise group 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 individuals 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 Pictures / Getty Pictures)
AccuWeather reported Monday that the injury and ensuing financial loss from the flooding could possibly be within the $18-22 billion vary general.
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The tenting trade is a serious trade in Kerrville and is among the sectors that has been affected by the flooding.
Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mindy Wendele informed “The Claman Countdown” host Liz Claman that the financial impression of the tenting trade “is significant with over $40 million in annual direct impact.”
“They are a generator that is such a wonderful, 100-year-old history of our industry here in the Texas Hill Country and Kerr County,” she stated. “And you take that out of our economy and, obviously, there is definitely an impact.”
Kerr County’s high trade is tourism, based on Wendele.
“We employ over 1,100 folks in that industry and, as you can imagine, now that we have this devastation in our area, it’s going to impact a lot of people,” she informed Claman. “And those are direct impacts, obviously. Then we have the families that are part of those 1,100 plus people.”
An individual holds a candle studying “Kerrville strong” 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 Pictures / Getty Pictures)
Wendele stated enterprise and group leaders are “out on the streets right now” and are “inventorying and surveying” companies “as they can to see what their needs are” within the wake of the flooding.
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Folks from varied professions and small enterprise house owners have been turning out to assist impacted communities, based on the Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce CEO.
“We had a roomful of people in my building yesterday that have completely taken off to come help people, seriously, everything from dog food to chainsaws to mucking out kitchens so that these restaurants and resorts can open,” she added.
The Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce created a “Rebuilding and Recovery Fund” this week to assist companies with their restoration efforts that individuals have made donations to. It acquired authorization to begin sending out funds on Wednesday morning, based on Wendele.
Search and rescue employees dig by way 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 Pictures / Getty Pictures)
“This time last week, none of us thought we would be in this situation,” she stated. “But here we are, and we are all really joining hands and working very hard. The business community takes care of the community.”
Corporations like Dwelling 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 makes a speciality of rooster fingers, lately introduced, by way of its founder Todd Graves, it was making a $1 million donation to the Purple Cross to help with the devastation.
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Wendele stated “we are so grateful” for the help from companies like these.
Claman requested her what Texans impacted by the flooding want most apart from cash.
“We need prayers and we need gift cards, and probably in that order,” Wendele stated, noting the Chamber has arrange a system for “categorizing those gift cards so that we can hand those out to folks for immediate help.”
