Locals Band Together for Wimberley Flood Relief

Two trucks, three trailers and everything from cleaning supplies to clothing, bedding and tools are being transported down to Wimberley this weekend in a considerable humanitarian effort to assist those affected by flooding and damage.

The relief effort was orchestrated by two local Wimberley natives, Lisa Meyer and Ivy Pickens, who heard stories from friends and relatives of the damage and felt compelled to do something to help.

Pickens grew up in Wimberley and moved to San Angelo to attend college. Here, she met her husband and has lived in the city since.

Pickens explained that she and Meyer were connected through a mutual friend, who told her that Meyer had begun collections and suggested the two get together and combine their efforts. Meyer had already started collecting items and handled donations in Tom Green County, while Pickens, a science teacher at Wall High School and Concho County resident, began collecting items in her area.

So far, the women have been able to acquire most household basics, including laundry soaps, hygiene products, cleaners, bed linens, water and a few tools.

“Several companies have donated work gloves, and with the hygiene items, several dentists and orthodontists in town have sent toothbrushes and toothpaste,” Pickens said. “The companies around here have just been wonderful.”

Kim Stealey, owner of local stationary and gift store Papel, is a friend of Pickens and has also accepted donations this week for the Wimberley relief effort.

“We’ve probably got two pickup trucks full of stuff and about $400 in cash and gift cards,” Stealey said. “People are just dropping off all kinds of stuff—cleaning stuff, mops and brooms, toiletries and pillows. This lady brought us two huge lawn garbage sacks full of homemade little toddler pillows. They’re so sweet and I don’t even know her name. But you can tell she put a lot of work into them. But there are people bringing all kinds of stuff. You can tell we’re a very generous community.”

Stealey said her interest arose out of a recent trip to the area in which she saw the damage levied by the floods and wanted to do something to help.

“I was in New Braunfels last weekend and I have a good family friend that I grew up with that lives in Wimberley,” she explained. “Her house was ok, but it was just horrible. I mean, just seeing the water—it’s scary.”

Stealey said she’d never seen so much water and damage, not even in the ’95 tornado that hit San Angelo.

“It was not even close,” she said. “And then the people that were missing, the house that floated down the river with people in it—you want to do something and you don’t know what to do and this was just an opportunity to help.”

Pickens, too, has heard horror stories.

“Several families that we know have lost entire businesses,” she said. “Like I said, Wimberley’s based on the tourism industry, so there’s a lot of bed and breakfasts and there’s a lot of river resort-type living…those places, a lot of them along the river, those are gone. Like it’s not just—yeah, they had water damage. All that’s left is a concrete foundation.”

In order to orchestrate the handout of donations, the residents of Wimberley have banded together and organized their own sort of volunteer service, relying on what they receive from generous outsiders and working together to help each other, Pickens said.

“We have tons of friends that still live there, but they are working with the people we’ve grown up with, you know, the local people,” Pickens explained. “What’s happening is they’re going to the local ACE Hardware…[they] have kind of taken on the volunteer distribution. So we’re not teaming up with any organizations because we don’t need to. We know the people there that need help and we know where it needs to go.”

If someone’s house has been wiped out, for example, and they need certain equipment to get the area cleaned up, they’ll contact the hardware store, who will attempt to find what is needed and organize getting it there, Pickens explained.

Pickens, Stealey and Meyer still have close friends in Wimberley and remain in contact on a daily basis, receiving updates on clean-up progress and taking notes of what’s needed by those affected by the flood.

“As of this morning they need things like flat-head shovels, they need rubber boots, they need bug repellant, they need large or heavy duty box cutter, they need buckets…chainsaws, kind of the more expensive items,” Pickens explained. “Anything to trim trees, to haul off brush, kind of the bigger stuff.”

Rubber boots are the hot commodity, Pickens said, adding that the stores in Wimberley and the surrounding areas have all but sold out and rubber boots in all sizes are in high, high demand.

“They don’t need any clothes,” she said. “They’ve got more clothes than they know what to do with. They just need rubber boots.”

On Friday evening, Pickens and Meyer met in the parking lot of Walmart near the former Chick-fil-A to continue collecting items before the drive to Wimberley on Saturday. Once they arrive and determine what the needs are, they will decide whether or not to hold another donation drive.

Stealey, too, is on board. “If they still need more and anybody’s going back, then we’ll continue to do it and we’ll post it on our Facebook page,” she said.