Watching the world watch Texas.
Issue No. 6, 2025
In this issue of Branding Texas: The resilience and unwavering commitment of Texans to Texans isn’t news to us here, but global coverage of the tragic Hill Country floods and losses bring home that grit to millions beyond our borders; the media reports remind us that in times of great trial, we are never really alone in this world; we discover too that there was little media coverage of the many international groups actively working on the ground in Texas – among them World Central Kitchen, Global Empowerment, Heart to Heart International, and Mercy Chefs.
Thomas Graham
Hill Country floods: the whole world was watching
The world watched with growing concern as the Hill Country floods of 2025 swept through recreation camps and river-adjacent homes, taking nearly 120 lives in Kerr County alone. As in other crises, news photographers are often first on the scene for the media. Freelance photographer Loren Elliott, normally based in Idaho, scrambled to the scene by plane and van to provide readers of Reuters and the New York Times around the world with some of the most compelling first photos and accounts of the devastation.
This from Loren: “I sprang into a familiar mode: booking flights, reserving an S.U.V., securing accommodations and packing my long list of gear – camera equipment, drone, Starlink satellite and, in the case of flooding, waders to stay dry. By that night, I’d made it from Boise, Idaho, where I live, to Dallas to San Antonio to Kerrville. The next morning, I headed to the spot I’d settled on looking at a Google satellite map the night before: a mobile home park close to the water’s edge.”
One of Loren’s shots captured rescuers looking for survivors in three smashed vehicles, including a beautifully polished, now devastated, black pickup truck.
Abigail Adams from People Magazine reported on the story of one local hero, Jonathan McComb, who lost his wife and kids in a Wimberley, TX flood ten years ago and who showed up this time, one of hundreds of volunteers who have turned out to help look for victims of the latest floods that ravaged central Texas over the 4th of July weekend.
McComb told this to Rick Jervis of USA Today: “This one hits a little bit more at home. I can see the hurt and the pain in the families. I know what they’re going through and what they’re feeling and what they’re going to feel.”
In 2015, Crosswind was proud to support the McComb family and others in recovery through our Flood Aid TX concert, with all proceeds going to families and those affected by the Memorial Day Flooding. Our work this year continues along with so many others who have stepped up to provide relief support.
More Texans helping Texans
Recovery efforts continue and, given the destructive force of the uncontrolled river, are likely to go on for years. The recovery will also be long-lasting, and Texans themselves are increasingly focused on helping the survivors who have recovered and identified their dead and other losses. Many in the state’s vibrant professional sports world have taken leadership.
Jose Enrico reports in Sports World News that professional leagues such as the NBA, MLB, and NFL have joined hands to give millions of dollars to relief efforts. Said Enrico: “The Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, and the NFL Foundation led the charge in helping the flood victims. Each of them donated $500,000, for a total of $1.5 million collectively. The donations are both for immediate emergency use as well as for ongoing recovery efforts for victims’ and families’ long-term recovery.”
Added Enrico: “The NBA followed suit on Monday, partnering with its Texas franchises, the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs, plus the NBA Players Association. In total, they committed over $2 million to affected communities
Alexis Garcia and Tatum DeHart reported for NBC 5 in Dallas that other of the state’s leading companies have kicked in including Airbnb (free emerging housing), Alamo Drafthouse ($50,000), Amazon (more thatn 68,000 essential items), Dell Technologies ($1 million from Michael Dell and his wife Susan), H-E-B (free recovery kits), and Walmart ($500,000 in grants and in-kind donations). Other companies, including fast-food franchisers like Shake Shack, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and In-N-Out are accepting donations for relief and also donating percentages of sales revenue.
Recovery efforts draw international support
On August 13, nearly 100 employees of the San Antonio Spurs joined Mercy Chefs, one of the world’s leading faith-based relief organizations, to bring hot meals to families and first responders.
The footprints across the state of international aid groups was more subtle and rarely earned any kind of top-tier or local media coverage. The global groups were primarily focused on providing immediate relief – food, water, hygiene supplies, and medical assistance – but some also provided longer-term recovery support. Among those unsung heroes were World Central Kitchen, Global Empowerment, Heart to Heart International, and Mercy Chefs.
World Central Kitchen, founded by master chef José Andrés and fabled for its work from Haiti to Gaza, transformed the iconic Hill Country Hunt Store into a vital hub for food and water distribution, serving thousands of hot meals to residents and emergency response crews.
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