A year after catastrophic flooding tore through Central Texas, killing at least 139 people, many communities in the Hill Country live with constant reminders of the disaster. River debris still covers landscapes, and homes tilt at flooded angles.
Included among those places is San Saba, which experienced the fourth-largest flood in its history in July of 2025 when the San Saba River rose 34 feet and 32 feet in back-to-back floods. A year later, numerous homes here still stand exactly as the water left them: split open, structurally unsound, and too dangerous to enter. Yet before Texas Hill Country flood recovery can begin in earnest—before land can be rebuilt on and families can return—damaged structures must be professionally demolished and cleared. It is a process that can be slow and expensive, particularly for homeowners without insurance or savings to cover it.
That is the gap Team Rubicon is hoping to help close. On July 5, 2026, the veteran-led disaster relief nonprofit and its volunteers—known as Greyshirts—arrived with compact track loaders and excavators to begin demolishing residences that were destroyed or badly damaged in the floods, all at no cost to homeowners.
For Rural Communities, Texas Hill Country Flood Recovery Comes Long After the News Cycle
The current Texas Hill Country flood recovery operation marks the organization’s fifth response to the 2025 floods, but its first focused specifically on demolition. Greyshirts arrived immediately after the floods last year to muck out flooded homes, remove debris, and tarp damaged roofs, then returned later in the summer to continue cleanup work for survivors. Over the course of the four Texas flood disaster response and recovery operations in 2025, Greyshirts logged nearly 11,900 hours of service and assisted 928 people across nine communities.
It is Team Rubicon’s first Texas Hill Country flood recovery operation in San Saba, which the nonprofit chose now because much of the area has remained underserved. The sparsely populated county, about two hours northwest of Austin, has about 5,800 residents spread across a wide, rural landscape, with a population density of roughly five people per square mile. Nearly a quarter of residents are 65 or older, compared with 14% statewide, and the county has a higher poverty rate and lower household incomes than the Texas average. Emergency management experts say that such a combination of an aging population, limited income, and thin local infrastructure often turns short-term disasters into multiyear recoveries. Elderly homeowners on fixed incomes, in particular, are frequently unable to pay for commercial demolition and debris removal on their own, leaving damaged properties to sit for months or years without outside intervention.
Recovery in rural communities like San Saba County also often takes far longer than the news cycle suggests.
“We are demolishing homes for families that were affected by the floods here in San Saba almost exactly a year ago so that they can begin the process of rebuilding their homes and their lives,” said Greyshirt and Senior Associate of Mission Support, Patrick Wright. “We’re doing it at no cost to the homeowners.”
Heavy Equipment Meets Heavy Lifting
Enter those Greyshirts. Of the 18 volunteers deployed on the operation, 13 are certified heavy equipment operators. Unlike earlier phases of flood recovery, which often involve mucking out mud and debris by hand, demolition requires excavators, loaders, and heavy equipment operators specially trained to bring down a damaged structure safely.
Most of the destroyed homes the Greyshirts are demolishing have been passed down through the generations, which means there’s a lot of emotion involved in the demolition and with the properties.
“We don’t just roll in and start knocking stuff down. The Greyshirts are spending that time with the homeowners, really letting them know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” says Wright. “We’re making sure that we’re doing this demolition work in a really respectful way, and we’re also making sure we leave things that they want left on the property.”
Take, for example, the case of one homeowner the team is working with: a woman whose husband was in the hospital during the flooding. She lost her home at the same time she lost her husband, Wright says.
“We may be here just to take down a home, but it’s more than that,” says Greyshirt Wright. “It’s a life that she had prior to this flooding, and the home also represents her husband. So we spent a lot of time talking with her and building trust. It’s really important to be aware of how emotional bringing down these homes can be for folks.”
Tearing Down Homes, Then Raising Them Up Again
As the Greyshirts spend the next couple of weeks tearing down 10 homes, they’re also paving the way for San Saba families to begin rebuilding.
“We want to start that process for folks to rebuild their homes, and obviously their lives as well,” says Wright.
Normally, this demolition work would intersect with Team Rubicon’s own Long-Term Recovery program. For example, the LTR team is currently rebuilding a home in Kerrville that Greyshirts had previously mucked out during a service project.
In fact, the request for assistance in San Saba originally came to LTR, which worked closely with Team Rubicon Operations to stand up the demolition op because another nonprofit has already committed to the rebuild—work that couldn’t begin until demolition was complete. Now, once the Greyshirts have completed taking the homes down, Samaritan’s Purse will be stepping in to rebuild 10 houses.
For now, the work in San Saba County is measured house by house: another lot cleared, another family one step closer to rebuilding, and hopefully, another milestone met in the ongoing Texas Hill Country flood recovery effort.
