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The postal worker had to use two hands to grasp the stack of donation checks — the size of several books — as he passed through the doors of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country on a recent Friday.
The mass of support from across the nation, gripped between his hands, have become a familiar sight since the deadly Guadalupe River floods last month.
In fact, the stack is a little small — early on gifts to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund was so large it was measured in filled postal trays.
"The outpouring of support has been overwhelming," said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country.
DPS checkpoints on Highway 39 — closing access to the general public — are a reminder of the devastation along the river's path. Uprooted trees and debris line the riverbanks.
Adjacent to Kerrville, dozens of the great, aged cypress trees in Louise Hays Park are bent over and stripped of their leaves.
Data from the Texas Department of Emergency Management reported that floodwaters swept away more than 400 homes and businesses throughout the region and damaged thousands more.
But only a tiny sliver of the properties had flood insurance, and the true need was still uncharted in Kerr County and beyond.
"I know it's in the tens-of-millions — if not hundreds-of-millions — of dollars, so we just know the road is long and the needs are great," Dickson said.
Myriad funds are taking in donations to help the region. Only one is giving money out currently— Dickson and the four employees of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. It isn't currently clear when all other funds will begin disbursing. The requirements for applying and timeframes are being released currently. For victims in desperate need now, the wait can be confusing and frustrating. It can cause potential donors to second-guess a gift.
This is not uncommon in the aftermath of these kinds of events. Money comes in but how does it get spent?
Five days after the flooding, Gov. Greg Abbott directed people to donate to the Central Texas Flood Recovery Fund, part of the OneStar Foundation, a foundation for which he appoints the board of directors. It raised $2.8 million. The Rebuild Texas Fund, also under OneStar, raised nearly $1 million from the Samsung Austin Semiconductor. But it will be placed into the Texas Flood Recover Fund.
The Travis Cares and Wilco Cares funds are under the Central Texas Community Foundation and have raised around $1 million between them so far — targeting relief for victims in those counties.
The United Way of San Antonio Bexar County also launched a fund, and it has raised $1.5 million as of Friday, Aug. 1. San Angelo and hard-hit Hunt, Texas, also have their own funds.
More than $20 million was raised by groups on the online giving platform GoFundMe.
Kerr County's fundraising through the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has dwarfed all other efforts. Officials estimate 120,000 people have donated so far, giving more than $100 million.
OneStar Foundation said its relief funds are focused on long-term needs. United Way of San Antonio was scheduled to release its application for service providers on Monday to apply for funds for longer term needs.
The Central Texas Community Foundation plans to roll out funding in the next four weeks for short term relief, and its officials hope to plan for longer term funding as well.
Thus far, the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country is the only one who has dispersed funds. About $12 million has been approved for a couple dozen entities feeding and housing people, along with small business assistance programs.
It gave Ingram ISD more than a $1 million dollars. The district's administrative building was completely destroyed, and the funds will help secure portable buildings that can be used during reconstruction.
The group also gave more than $3 million to LiftFund to administer emergency grants to affected businesses for up to $10,000. As of Friday, it had distributed 115 grants.
Sitting on a site the size of a large city block, the three buildings making up The Riverside Nature Center have for 30 years hosted programs that educated the public on the native habitats of Texas. The total damage to them from the flood is estimated to be around their annual budget of $250,000.
Water inundated two facilities and washed away decades of educational curriculum. It also destroyed the center's perimeter fencing, which keeps the white tail deer from eating the plants officials hope to educate the public about. The grant — about half what the center needs to fix the fence — has allowed officials to contract for its repair.
"That was a true blessing," said Becky Etzler, the center's CEO, of getting the funds. "It was just kind of a collective sigh of relief."
In addition to short-term grants for emergency disaster relief, Dickson and his team at the Community Foundation for the Texas Hill Country are forming groups to advise on medium- and long-term relief funding for, among other areas, housing, mental health, ecological restoration, economic restoration.
"The July economy in Kerr County has come to a complete standstill," Dickson said.
As the community emerges from the shell shock of last month's catastrophe, many may not have touched relief dollars by now — and this could leave people suspicious and confused about the large dollar amounts and multiple funds being collected.
"All these millions of dollars that come from all over the place getting donated. Where the hell is that going?" an angry Mike Richards asked lawmakers at a Thursday hearing. The crowd applauded his remarks. "All that money is going to some politician's slush fund somewhere."
Lawmakers assured him that would not happen, but the sentiment of feeling abandoned at this time has been expressed by others — even on the Community Foundation's Facebook page.
"I have been told by so many displaced and homeless folks from this disaster— the money isn't available — where did all the millions go?" asked Krystal Kuulei on Facebook.
Dickson is disappointed by these kinds of comments, but he understood how people who need help now can be upset.
Many of the organizations raising funds now will not fund individuals directly. They will instead fund smaller nonprofits or churches that already have those relationships to provide those dollars or offer services.
All the funds raised and distributed come while his four-person staff along with a host of volunteers take out time to attend funerals.
Also, disaster relief efforts are rife with scams. He said their organization's lawyers have contacted a number of groups to confront the crimes.
His fund—United Way and OneStar—has committed to ensuring every dollar is accounted for publicly.
"I think that the Community Foundation has been really transparent about where our grants are going and to who they're going to," he said. "Our website lists the grantees, the dollar amount and the purpose of the grant."
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