Welcome Home Summary: For Mike and Brenda Trolinger, this home was more than a house. It was family land, a retirement dream, a place they had worked toward for years, and a return to the community that had shaped so much of their lives.
Mike had grown up with deep ties to the area, coming out here as a child and later returning after years of public service. After working for the San Antonio Police Department for 25 years, and with retirement getting closer, he began remodeling the house. For five years, Mike worked extra jobs to pay for the improvements. This was not just a project. It was the place they planned to settle.
Then came July 4.
By late on July 3, rain was coming down heavily, but, like so many others, the Trolingers hoped the rain would pass and the water would go down. By the early morning hours, everything changed.
They woke to water coming into the house. When they opened the back door, the water was already over their knees. The house was surrounded. They escaped up the hill with almost nothing — flip-flops, pajamas, shorts, and a sweatshirt borrowed from family. Within minutes, the house was overtaken.
They watched helplessly as trees, cars, and debris slammed into the home. The sounds were terrifying — cracking, crashing, explosions in the distance. “It sounded like bombs going off,” Brenda remembered. “It felt like the end of the world.”
Inside the house, furniture had been pushed against doors and windows. A dresser fell near the side of the bed. Looking back, they know that if they had waited any longer, they may not have been able to get out.
But even as their own home was being destroyed, Mike decided to try to help others.
Karen, a neighbor, needed help. Her mother, who could not walk, was still inside the flooded home. When he reached the house, Karen was on the roof with her little dog. Her mother was inside on a mattress, surrounded by rising water. He and other responders broke windows to get in. Against all odds, her mother had floated upward with the water on the mattress, then settled back down as the water receded. She was alive.
They got her into a chair, then into a car, and eventually to safety. Because the road was still flooded, emergency vehicles could not yet reach them. Neighbors and first responders did what they could with what they had. A flood survivor had just turned into a first responder.
In the middle of devastation, exhaustion, fear, and loss, there was also extraordinary kindness. People simply showed up. They helped each other. They carried one another through.
After the flood, the question was overwhelming: Where do we even start? Rebuilding would cost as much as buying another home, and selling a flooded property felt impossible. But leaving never felt right either. Katy Culver, with Kerrville Design Build helped to solve the question of next steps. Katy and her team of professionals helped step the Trolingers through every stage of rebuilding. Funding from the Community Foundation played an integral, supportive role. Within a few short months, the Trolingers are back at home, thanks to volunteers, partnerships and organizations who just wanted to be a part of the solution.
The Trolingers did not want to live in fear, and they did not want to give up the place they loved.
“We can’t keep living afraid,” Brenda said. “Sometimes you have to face your fear.”
Their story is one of survival, service, and stubborn love for home — the kind of love that keeps people rooted even after the water rises.
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