Yesterday, I posted a review of the History Channel miniseries Texas Rising, and I plan to post more reviews as the series continues the next few Mondays. But I wanted to save this news for its own, separate post: all of the areas depicted in that series, from the Alamo and San Antonio de Béxar to Goliad to Gonzales to the forthcoming sites of San Jacinto and Washington-on-the-Brazos, are suffering from catastrophic flooding.
It’s easy to forget that while watching the miniseries, because the whole thing is shot in the deserts of Mexico. But here are some images of what Texas actually looked like while the miniseries was first airing on Memorial Day:
And this was my own hometown of Boerne, TX:
(By the way, the driver of that vehicle was safely rescued.)
By some accounts, Texas received upwards of eight million acre feet of water over the holiday weekend, enough to turn the entire state of Rhode Island into a lake ten feet deep.
And there’s more rain coming. Days and days of it.
The good news is, Texas is already getting a lot of state and federal aid, and Texas’s reputation as “the Friendly State” is well deserved, so lots of neighbors are helping each other out. (There was one particularly heartwarming story of Austinites lining up in droves to take in foster pets when Austin animal shelters flooded.) But there’s a lot left to do, especially in the face of further flooding and other dangerous weather. So here are some lists of ways to help, either financially or with labor, as well as some information about storm shelters and relief organizations in the affected areas (each link has a fairly lengthy list of resources).
- How to help Central Texas flood victims
- Red Cross and cities open shelters throughout Central Texas
- Ways to help Texas and Oklahoma flood victims
These lists aren’t exhaustive by any means, so if you know of other links, please share them in the comments!
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
that video of white SUV trapped in roaring creek was Tapatio Springs
I wondered — all the reports said Boerne or “near Boerne,” but I didn’t think it looked like town. Thanks for clarifying!
For folks not in the know: Tapatio Springs is a subdivision just outside Boerne, Texas — and quite too near my own parents’ house! (Glad you’re okay, Dad and Mom.)