Texas mom works to reunite flood victims with lost family photos: 'Sometimes it's all somebody has left'
LEANDER, TEXAS: As catastrophic floods devastated parts of Central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, a young mother has taken it upon herself to help preserve the memories that the rising waters nearly erased.
While she can’t assist with physical cleanup efforts, Shelby Sargent has found another way to support her close-knit community — by salvaging and returning water-damaged family photographs.
The 24-year-old mother, who grew up in Sandy Creek and now lives in Leander, said the destruction she witnessed was “nothing explainable.” Sargent has turned to social media to reunite families with photos recovered from debris, calling the images “more than important” to those who have lost everything.
Volunteers are drying and preserving flood-damaged photos to return them to families
Shelby Sargent has been sharing photos recovered from the flood zone on her Facebook page in hopes of locating the original owners. The photographs, many of them decades old, were pulled from creeks and debris piles by volunteers and first responders, including Sargent’s friend Dillon, who works in emergency management.
The rescued photos are now being stored and organized at Round Mountain Baptist Church, a central hub for disaster response in the Sandy Creek area. Volunteers at the church have been drying and preserving the images in an effort to return them to flood victims.
“Somehow, I just want to reach the families of those who know that their family was affected, and those could be their photos,” Sargent told KXAN. “I really don’t know what the next step would be. I’m just trying to get it out there… hopefully survivors at this point.”
She said this effort matters to her because, “sometimes a photo is all somebody has left of somebody, so these photos are more than important to people.”
Shelby Sargent emotionally connects with flood photo recovery as devastation hits home
The destruction in Sandy Creek and nearby areas has left many residents without homes or possessions. Among the hardest hit were Dan and Virginia Dailey, whose mobile home was completely swept away by the floodwaters, leaving only debris and their displaced car lodged against a nearby house.
For Sargent, the recovery effort is deeply personal. She said she’s identified some of the photos as belonging to people she knows, friends and their families, and even came across one that included herself.
“That about did me in,” she said. “It was hard to realize that this wasn’t just your neighbors, these are family members, these are friends. Even if it’s somebody I don’t know, that’s somebody’s baby. I’m a mom myself… It’s hard to see these families lose so much. [The photos are] all they have, so that’s what we’ll give them, at least.”
Shelby Sargent urges help for flood-ravaged communities
While Shelby Sargent continues to assist from home, she’s urging others to join the cleanup efforts on the ground. She says communities like Windy Valley and Sandy Creek need volunteers equipped with tools like crowbars, winches, gloves, goggles, and respiratory masks.
“Right now, they need bodies and chainsaws,” she said.
Sargent has also shared links to multiple fundraisers supporting flood victims, including a fundraiser for the family of Braxton Jarmon, an incoming sophomore at Leander High School and member of the marching band who lost his life in the floods, a collection organized by Leander ISD Plant Services for one of their Grounds Leads, whose family lost everything, a GoFundMe for a family with three young children, also left with nothing after the flooding, and more.
As the floodwaters recede, community members like Sargent are making sure that what can be saved, memories, dignity, and hope, are not lost.
