Home Care In Ingram, TX

Ingram Lake, which is part of the Guadalupe River, is still a mess after the July 4 flooding. Residents want something done.

INGRAM, Texas — Ingram residents begged and pleaded with the Kerr County Commissioners Court on Monday morning to begin the process of draining the Ingram Lake.

The body of water, which is really a man-made lake formed by a dam on the Guadalupe River at the City of Ingram, became the stopping point for vehicles, trash, trees and other debris during the devastating July 4 flooding. Local residents worry there are still vehicles, human remains, and toxic chemicals remaining in the water.

Ann Carr, who lives nearby, has created a petition to drain the lake, which she said gathered 650 signatures. There is also a Facebook page dedicated to the issue.

"During the flood we watched things like propane tanks come down, kitchen appliances, a huge bale of hay. We saw dead animals caught in building materials." Carr said. "The state and the county needs to come together and come up with a plan, quick, to take care of the lake and drain it responsibly."

Carr did clarify that she wanted to wait until October or November to drain the lake because it would be better for trees in the area. She worried that it would be a six-month process – or more – adding that if the county waited it would hurt city businesses next summer.

"The lake is an economic engine for our city," Carr said. "People come in and boat and fish. They go to the restaurants and shops."

The issue came to the Kerr County Commissioners Court on Monday morning, where multiple residents pleaded with county leaders to drain and clean the lake.

Commissioner Tom Jones thanked the residents for coming, but said they couldn't drain the lake yet because the recovery process hasn't yet reached the finish line.

In other words, they are still looking for bodies.

KENS 5 followed up with Jones on a phone call to clarify exactly what was happening on the lake and why draining it was not an option right now. According to the county commissioner, crews have already removed all the vehicles from the lake as of last week and Texas Task Force 1 is currently scanning the lake with sonar technology to get a better picture and look for human remains.

He said there will eventually be barges with excavators that will dig for human remains.

"That has to take place first," Jones said. "There will be a couple of months for all that to be approved. That has to be done with extreme caution and care. The primary focus is still recovery with nothing but honor and respect for these families."

Jones added the county had spoken to state experts, who they believed draining the lake, even very slowly, could mean losing any human remains.

Additionally, Jones said there is a possibility that the lone remaining missing victim from Camp Mystic, 8-year-old Cile Stewart, could be in that part of the river. Jones said that if the excavators don't find anything, draining the lake could be a subsequent plan of action.

Carr said she agreed with Jones that finding flood victims is the first priority. At the same time, she worried that failing to drain the lake this year would mean more pain, or even closures, for businesses next summer.

"We can't afford to lose another summer because we are not acting fast enough to drain our lake now," she said.

Councilman Ray Howard hopes donors will fund an Ingram flood warning system amid his personal cancer battle

INGRAM, Texas – City Councilmember Ray Howard is battling Stage 4 cancer. Yet, he’s putting his energy into a different kind of fight.

For weeks, Howard has been doing his civic duty from a hospital bed more than 250 miles away in Houston, including voting to install a flood siren system.

Howard has Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma, a form of rare malignant tumors, and the battle has weakened his immune system.

Nevertheless, Howard chose to help with flood response and recovery effort. His hand was infected by the floodwaters in the process.

“Three weeks, I’ve been in the hospital almost the whole time,” Howard said. “Right now, I’ve got 11 tumors that I’m dealing with.”

Howard said chemotherapy has not worked, but is looking into a treatment in Australia he believes has a high success rate.

Although Howard said he has never asked for money, his colleagues at City Hall set up a fundraiser to try and help him out.

For now, Howard has been focused on and vocal about getting flood warning sirens installed along the Ingram section of the Guadalupe River.

“If we can get a 15-minute head start warning,” Howard said, “that would have saved a heck of a lot of lives.”

Ingram voted to install three sirens along their 2.2 square mile section of the river. He’s also working on an effort among other entities.

In a closed-door meeting with the Upper Guadalupe River Authority and Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly on Friday, Howard said they talked about ways to work together moving forward.

“It’ll all work and benefit each other if we get this all set up,” Howard said, “so the alarm systems work all the way down to the river.”

Howard and Ingram leaders are still searching for a way to fund the roughly $200,000 project, however.

State Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, said lawmakers are working to pass a bill that could help fund the installation of sirens.

“Specifically for Ingram and communities like it, $55 million is in there,” Sen. Flores said Wednesday.

Howard does not want to wait for a bill to pass.

“We got to get it through all that bureaucratic red tape,” Howard said. “In the meantime, if we can get funding for it and get it done, that’s even better.”

“If we could get one donor, that’d be great,” Howard continued. “If we get a bunch of donors, then it doesn’t really hurt that bad in the pocketbook.”

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“I said, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m hallucinating, man. I swear I hear this little girl.”

INGRAM, Texas – In the wake of devastating flooding along the Guadalupe River, more than a thousand search-and-rescue workers have been combing through multiple Hill Country towns in search of missing victims.

For some residents, the official response wasn’t fast enough, and they took it upon themselves to help find their neighbors.

One of those locals is Ashton Bolton, who grew up along the Guadalupe and knows its banks as well as anyone.

Days after the wall of water tore through the region, destroying homes and RVs and sweeping away neighbors, Bolton says he set out to find survivors or at least bring closure to families.

“It was the faintest scream, man,” Bolton recalled.

The sound cut through the rush of the river and the snap of branches as he walked along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

“You know when you’re in a very quiet room, it sounds like a vacuum? That’s how it sounded,” he said.

Bolton said the flood’s aftermath in his hometown was “crushing.” Still, he and a few friends walked miles along the riverbanks, searching.

“It’s God’s work, really. I mean, it was just him and I out there by ourselves,” Bolton said.

On the day after the flood, he ventured out near his home.

“It was so quiet, it was loud, you know what I mean? But I was in the water, I was hearing the water, but I know I heard her,” he said. “Not just once, two or three times.”

Bolton said he questioned whether he was imagining it.

“I said, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m hallucinating, man. I swear I hear this little girl.’ It’s a girl scream. It’s not a boy scream, it’s a girl’s scream. Just loud and high-pitched,” he said.

Moments later, he saw her.

“I went between underneath this tree and this little thicket, and right as I turned my head left. Looking west upstream, and there she was,” Bolton said. “She was just bruised up and scraped up a little bit. She was cold. She was COLD. Her lips were swollen purple. I got home that night and taking a warm frickin’ shower. Really? I’m fortunate enough to take a warm shower.”

The girl, no older than 10, was lifeless. She had ended up on a small raised patch of dry ground in the middle of the river.

“But I like to tell myself the way that she was laying, she looked like she was dancing. Like she was happy to go to the Lord. Like she was happy,” Bolton said.

There was no scream. Whatever AShton thought he heard, led him straight to the young girl, as if someone or something was calling him to find her.

After calling 911, deputies needed Bolton’s help to get the girl’s body across the still-swollen river.

“Once the deputies came, he said, we’re gonna need a kayak. Well, I know there’s one upstream. So I had to cross back over in water up to my chest,” Bolton said.

He described what happened next after calling 911.

“Had to lay her body on a kayak. And put her back in the river and just float her across. And take her out of the kayak and put her in a body bag,” he said.

Bolton can’t explain how the scream led him to her. But for him, the search wasn’t over.

“Let’s keep going, Mystic is right there,” he said.

In the days that followed, Bolton and his friends searched for personal belongings along the river, items they hoped could be returned to families.

“Allie, Allie W, I don’t know her last name, I found her a little blue backpack with her pink brush in it and her bug bite and her lotion,” he said. “I wasn’t going to lay them back down in the river bed, back in the mud. Any piece of clothing we saw because they all had tags on them and I don’t know if they’re machine washable but they all have little cute little stickers on them like little rainbows or something little girls.”

Bolton and his girlfriend, Lauren, spent days collecting, sorting and bagging the items.

“Lauren’s picking up these cute little dresses, man. Cute little tiny dresses,” he said.

For Bolton, returning these items is about giving families something to hold onto.

“It’s my job in my home, my hometown, my backyard. I’m responsible for these little girls. I need to find them. I need take care of them like they’re my own,” he said.

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