On July 3, 2025, Bill Schiller had stood on his porch in the Texas Hill Country feeling, he said, like he was on top of the world. His family’s property—shared with his son—spread out below him, nestled among towering cypress trees, with a creek winding into the Guadalupe River.
“This was our family compound,” he said of the acres of ranchland that sat between the towns of Ingram and Hunt. “We’d worked on it for six years. It was our getaway, and we shared it with everyone we loved.”
The morning of July 4, everything changed.
Significant rain fell across Central Texas, causing multiple flash floods. The Guadalupe River rose roughly 26 feet in a mere 45 minutes. Floodwaters raged across the region, sweeping through homes, tearing through property lines, and leaving behind ruin.
“It was gone overnight,” Bill said of the family property. “And we didn’t know what to do.”
A Texas Flood Survivor Story Begins: Lost and Not Knowing Where to Turn
As the waters receded and in the days that followed, the emotional weight began to set in for the Schillers.
“We weren’t helpless,” Bill recalled, “but we were stuck. The numbers weren’t adding up. We didn’t know where to go or who to ask.”
Like so many others caught in the chaos, Bill’s Texas flood survivor story began with loss and confusion. He and his family didn’t reach out for help—at least not at first.
“Pride kicks in,” he said. “We saw people helping, but nothing coming our way—and we weren’t expecting it either.”
That changed after a conversation with a volunteer at the Hunt Fire Department. One person led to another, and soon Team Rubicon and its disaster relief volunteers were at his property.
“It was like a bright light came down on us.”
Grit Like He’d Never Seen Before
Team Rubicon’s Greyshirt strike team showed up and started work fast. They assessed the site, loaded debris, and crawled through tight, flooded crawlspaces under the home, in some places barely 2 feet high.
And the work didn’t stop when the rain returned.
“The next morning, it was pouring,” Bill said. “There were weather alerts. I didn’t think y’all would be there. I pulled up, and you were already hard at work again. I’ve never seen that kind of grit before.”
The volunteers hauled out debris, pointed out hidden structural issues, and kept asking the same question: “What else do you need?”
“I’ve never seen anything like that. Everyone—every single person—was working, helping, communicating. No wasted motion. No hesitation,” said a still amazed Bill.
Out of the Wreckage, A Path Forward Emerges
The emotional toll of the flood was already steep. But the financial cost—and the uncertainty—was beginning to feel like too much. For a moment, the family considered giving up.
“Y’all brought a spark back into us,” Bill said. “We didn’t know how we were going to do this. Honestly, we might’ve walked away.”
But the Schillers didn’t walk away. With help from Team Rubicon, the most overwhelming part—the early gut work, the debris piles, the crawl space grime—got done. And with it came a sense of momentum. A path forward.
“Now we can build again. And faster than we thought possible,” said the family patriarch.
Bill didn’t just stand by while Greyshirts worked. After they cleared out the crawlspace beneath his home, he pitched in, helping carry debris out of the yard and to the roadside, where it would later be picked up for disposal. For Bill, working alongside the volunteers who had just given him back a sense of direction wasn’t just cleanup—it felt like taking the first real steps toward rebuilding.
A Disaster Relief Volunteer in the Making
Bill isn’t just thankful—he’s inspired. At the heart of his Texas flood survivor story is a volunteer spirit that changed everything.
Y’all didn’t just clear mud—you cleared the way.
Bill Schiller
“This has made me want to become a Greyshirt,” he said. “I’m newly retired, and there are just so many ways to help people. This team? They showed up when we needed it most.”
As for what’s next, before he steps up to serve others, there’s still work of his own to be done. Now, the rebuilding begins. “We’re getting this place back. We’re not giving up. But we wouldn’t have gotten here without Team Rubicon. Y’all didn’t just clear mud—you cleared the way.”
