A University of Delaware doctoral student was among those in Texas last month after the July 4 flooding.
Julie Elliott was there to study the response as part of her dissertation. It was part of her proposal to go to Texas if a disaster situation happened there.
Unfortunately, the flooding that killed over 130 people in Texas led Elliott back to her home state. She’s originally from North Texas with family near that area.
While there Elliott said there were still many storms and her last day there search and rescue was halted because of storm warnings.
She said the area has enormous, towering trees and at one mobile park that was destroyed the trees were either uprooted or bent at a 90-degree angle if they stayed in the soil.
Elliott says the lesson learned is to try to make sure you’re prepared.
"I think that it's important to remember to not be complacent whenever you're thinking about hazard events,” said Elliott. “This is an area that gets flash flooding a lot. This is obviously was unprecedented flash flooding, and you have to stay vigilant at all times realizing that the unprecedented could happen at anytime and take measures now to prepare yourself, to prepare your family."
As for the conditions for responders, not only was there flooding to deal with according to Elliott, but heat, humidity and in some cases, snakes hindered their work.
"It was certainly very, very hot there, and the humidity on top of it was just was very rough on the responders there. And so there were lots of relief stations set up just for the responders to get food, to get water, to get hydrated and take a break," said Elliott.
