Storm damages Stonewall Senior Citizens Center as Aspermont rallies to help

More than 50 volunteers help empty the damaged center after heavy rain pours through its exposed roof; repairs could take four to six months

As floodwaters swept across parts of the Texas Hill Country on July 16, once again raising floodwaters well above average, the same storm system was also wreaking havoc nearly 250 miles to the northwest along the Double Mountains.

Inside the Stonewall Senior Citizens Center in Aspermont, it was supposed to be an ordinary Thursday.

Director Becky Flores and her staff were busy preparing lunch while finishing food for a catered dinner that evening. Outside, contractors were replacing portions of the building’s aging roof. It was the kind of work that had become necessary to preserve one of the community’s most treasured gathering places.

Then the rain came. Flores remembers stepping outside and seeing the clouds roll in. Moments later came a sound she will not soon forget.

“We heard a big crash,” said Flores. “Ceiling tiles just everywhere falling. All at once.”

Rain poured through the exposed roof faster than anyone expected. Within minutes, water was running through offices, soaking furniture, supplies and equipment.

The lunch they had spent the morning preparing was ruined. So was the meal planned for that evening.

“Everything was ruined that we had made,” said Flores. “We lost a big chunk of profit for Thursday.”

At first, everyone tried to save what they could. Then came the realization there was no stopping the water.

“It was like an all-call went out,” said Flores. “There just came a point where we had to say, ‘Get out.’”

For the people inside, the storm lasted only a matter of minutes. Its consequences are expected to last months.

The first priority: saving the building

The calls began almost immediately. Some were to board members. Some were to city officials.

Others were simply pleas for help from people trying to make sense of a disaster that had unfolded before their eyes. Stonewall Senior Citizens Center board member Marla McCoy remembers arriving to find a building completely transformed by the preceding chaos.

“It was heartbreaking,” said McCoy. “Surprising, shocking. Didn’t know what in the world we were gonna do. You don’t experience a catastrophe like this. Who do you call? Where do you start?”

The first priority quickly became saving the building from what couldn’t yet be seen.

Water damage was obvious. Mold was the next threat.

McCoy reached out to Aspermont Economic and Industrial Development Corporation Director Steven Clowe, knowing he had experience in disaster restoration. After working major hurricane recovery efforts, including Hurricane Katrina, Clowe recognized the danger wasn’t simply repairing a roof; it was drying the building before mold could take hold.

“If you have humidity levels higher than 80% for more than 72 hours, you get mold,” explained Clowe, saying that he reached out to disaster experts for assistance.

Initial restoration resources had already been pulled south to respond to widespread flooding elsewhere in Texas, leaving few options available. Clowe helped connect the center with another catastrophe restoration company that arrived the following morning with drying equipment and crews already prepared to begin work.

Aspermont answers the call

While restoration crews worked to save the building, Aspermont quietly began saving everything inside it.

A Facebook post asking for volunteers spread through town. Then another.

By Sunday afternoon, people began arriving with boxes, pickup trucks, dollies and work gloves.

Some packed office files. Others carried tables and chairs. Kitchen equipment, decorations, supplies and decades of memories were carefully moved out one piece at a time.

“Needless to say, as you can see, we had a fabulous turnout,” said Clowe. “In three hours we got basically that building empty, which is incredible.”

Along the way, however, something happened that even Clowe didn’t expect. Aspermont ISD students began showing up.

“I didn’t expect teenagers to show up,” Clowe admitted. “I was quite impressed.”

Among them was Aspermont High School junior Valley Bradley.

Looking around at the amount of work still left to do, Bradley decided they needed more help. She began calling friends.

“We just need some more muscles up here,” Bradley recalled telling them. “They jumped on it.”

Those friends called friends. Before long, a new crew began arriving — not because anyone assigned them to, but because another student simply said they were needed.

“It’s easy,” she said. “People always are offering to help… if anything goes wrong, everyone’s there to help you up.”

Freshman Noah Flores saw it the same way.

“In bad situations, everyone comes together to help pull through it,” he said. “I knew they needed all the help they could get, so I figured why not come and help them out.”

By the end of the day, more than 50 volunteers had cycled through the cleanup effort over several days, with the largest turnout coming Sunday. Together, they emptied nearly the entire building in about three hours, allowing restoration crews and insurance adjusters to begin the next phase of recovery.

More than a place to eat

The outpouring reflected what the Stonewall Senior Citizens Center has long meant to Aspermont.

It is where neighbors gather over lunch. Where church groups meet. Where families hold reunions. Where fish fries draw hundreds of people. And where students eat alongside retirees.

“They're all really kind to us and treat us with love and compassion,” said Flores, reflecting on meals — and stories — shared at the center.

That fellowship isn’t ending because one storm damaged one building. It is evolving and strengthening because of it.

“It's a very bright light. And I think the brightness actually came yesterday,” said McCoy, recalling the initial turnout of volunteer help. “This is a place where people come to be part of a community. It's not only the meals that we serve here… of course, people were excited when they knew we were gonna try to set up over in the community center.”

Repairs are expected to take four to six months while insurance adjusters complete their assessments and contractors prepare reconstruction plans. Until then, the center plans to continue operating from the Stonewall County Community Center as scheduling allows, ensuring the meals, conversations and friendships that have defined the center for generations continue uninterrupted while its longtime home is rebuilt.