“I had to pull myself together before I called you,” Brian Meagher told me as he drove out of Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas.
Unless you’re living in a total news vacuum, you’re aware that sudden heavy rains starting on July 4 caused the Guadalupe River to flood Kerr County, with a stunning loss of life. Countless people—including children at Camp Mystic—remain missing at this time. A search and rescue effort pulling first responders and volunteers from across the nation is ongoing.
Meagher is a proud Livonian currently running for Livonia City Council. A small business owner with kids, and with a set of skills badly needed, Meagher answered the call, suspended his campaign, and departed to help re-establish connectivity in the area.
I reached out and Meagher agreed to relay his observations, thoughts, and emotions to me during his temporary stay in Texas.
“I’ve been to several disaster sites over the years, including Haiti in 2010, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Meagher. “There are still missing kids in Kerr County. At this point, we have to assume they’ve died, but this search will continue for days. We don’t even know how many are missing yet.”
He interrupted his thoughts to tell me he just drove by a boat 30 feet in the air and wrapped around a tree. “I’ve never seen that before.”
Meagher first drew my attention at the Livonia Republican Forum in early June, when every city council candidate was given three minutes to speak. Admittedly, I grew bored as most speakers parroted a litany of the tired old policy solutions and ideological concerns.
My head buried in my phone, I heard Meagher give a quick description of himself, a brief run-down of what he supported in the city, and ask for Livonians to vote for him before sitting down.
He didn’t even use his full allotted time. My immediate reaction was, “This guy is a no-bullshit operator.”
True to form, and with no regard for his political fortunes, Meagher dropped what he was doing to rush to those in need over a thousand miles away.
Communication in Kerr County and the surrounding area is extraordinarily limited due to power outages, and we’ve been speaking through fragmented texts and emails. Meagher tells me Starlink is being used to connect and organize first responders.
Late last week, an email arrived in my inbox with an attachment. Inside was raw, unfiltered, fragmented stream-of-conscious.
“Took me two and half hours to drive 22 miles around the Guadalupe.”
“Bodies not in the water are starting to swell, shifting a lot of search and rescue from sight to smell.”
“A 9-month-old was pulled from the river last night. Last thing I was thinking about trying to sleep.”
“We’re supporting agencies/nonprofits at this single site with connectivity and cellular, allowing them to communicate internally and beyond. Crews are requesting Starlink access in remote locations.”
“Seeing shampoo bottles, hair-ties, colorful draw-string bags, and other kid’s items around the fields nest to the river. Dead fish over 100 yards from the river bank, stuck once the flooding receded.”
“I don’t feel like a hero, this isn’t about me. Long term recovery will take years. Vehicles crunched like Coke cans smashed in your hand. Over 2,000 volunteers are here from around the world. Everyone here knows somebody who died or missing.”
“The sheriff I spoke with is under extraordinary stress. He pulled 30 bodies and is drained. Says he is very tired. Quite evident that mental health will be a huge issue for these first responders in the years to come.”
“Seeing the blame game in the media. People need to stop blaming from afar. Even with a warning signal, waters still would have come. Maybe less loss of life, but the magnitude would have been unchanged and size of the flooding is not something a warning system would have been able to outrun in less than 40 minutes at 3 a.m.”
“Drove by a giant 100-year-old cypress tree uprooted and lodged high up in trees down the river, bark completely stripped off it.”
“Recovery will take years.”
One more ding in my in-box. Clicking on a link, I found a folder with 100 pictures of the area between Kerrville and Hunt, Texas, depicting search and rescue and recovery efforts.
Tears in my eyes, I scrolled the film-roll seeing the devastation and damage. The problems in Livonia and Michigan seem miniscule at the moment, and that’s why someone like Meagher answered the call.
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
