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Steady rain in the region over the last few days led to flooding in Williamson County, with some evacuations occurring. We’ll hear from residents impacted by the floods and how it differed from last summer’s flooding.
A Central Austin building that was home to a Sears store for decades has new life as a one-stop shop — but instead of lawnmowers and washing machines, folks can now have many of their health needs met. We’ll have more about the transformation.
Plus, Austin author Rebecca Bendheim’s new book “When You’re Brave Enough” is all about a mid-life reinvention… Or perhaps more of a middle-school reinvention.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] No doubt you or someone you know uttered the phrase, we needed this rain over the last few days, but up in Williamson County, the rain was enough to cause some flash flooding and warrant some evacuations. We’re gonna hear from some of the residents impacted by the floods and how it differed from last summer’s flooding. And a central Austin building that was home for decades to a Sears has new life as a one-stop shop. But instead of lawn mowers and washing machines, folks can now have many of their health needs met. More about that transformation coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:38] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:43] Plus, an Austin author’s new book is all about a midlife reinvention. Okay, okay, more like middle school reinvention, but hey, those feelings are still real. Those stories and a whole lot more, up next, here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, you are listening to Austin Signal here on community powered public radio. This is KUT News, I’m your host, Jerry Gechannel. It is Wednesday, April 22nd, and it seems like most of the rain that’s been sticking around the area for the past few days is finally moving past us. Meteorologist Avery Tomasko says more than 4 inches of rain have fallen in Austin this month, making it the rainiest April since 2019. Up in Williamson County, residents of three separate mobile home parks are settling in after being evacuated from their homes Tuesday because of flash flooding. These are the same RV parks that were heavily damaged during last July’s deadly storms. As KUT’s Kaylee Hunt reports, neighbors say they were better prepared this time around.
Kailey Hunt [00:01:53] Elizabeth Tamez and her husband have lived at the Shady River RV Park along the San Gabriel River in Georgetown for five years. She expected Tuesday to be like any other rainy day. But then the rain didn’t stop for hours and hours. Tamezz had just returned home from a doctor’s appointment when a sheriff’s deputy from Williamson County approached her and told her she needed to prepare to leave the RV park. The San Gabriel was rising and fast. Tamez says she immediately began to prepare to evacuate. We talked as she carefully stacked planters of flowers on top of each other underneath a pop-up canopy. She hoped to use them as a sort of protective barrier for other belongings.
Elizabeth Tamez [00:02:34] I love my plants. I love them. So unfortunately, I’m using them just to protect my other value items. So we’ll see. Maybe it’s not gonna be major this time, but you never know. It’s better to be safe.
Kailey Hunt [00:02:51] Then sorry.” Tamez says she and her husband were out of town when the RV park flooded during last July’s deadly storms. They had lost many of their belongings, including three vehicles. But like many residents, they decided to return to the park after it was cleaned up.
Elizabeth Tamez [00:03:08] This is a beautiful place to live, it’s beautiful, it is a gorgeous neighborhood. We feel safe, safe, love, I mean we are a community, it isn’t another place you live. We are family here.
Kailey Hunt [00:03:21] Shauna Thayer and her teenage daughter also returned to the Shady River RV Park on Tuesday after hearing about the evacuation. The pair lives a couple miles down the road, and they were here after last year’s summer storms to help with cleanup and recovery. Thayer says compared to last July, Tuesday’s evacuation was a bit more difficult.
Shauna Thayer [00:03:39] Was quote so much more efficient. I think this time everyone knew to take it seriously. Law enforcement and county services showed up incredibly quickly and have been really efficient.
Kailey Hunt [00:03:49] Thayer says most residents voluntarily chose to evacuate.
Shauna Thayer [00:03:53] An incredible number of strangers showed up to help people get to safety. It was so traumatic last year and then so much went into recovery and so many lives fell apart. It was great to be able to get ahead of it this time and to watch the entire community take it seriously and be so efficient in their response.
Kailey Hunt [00:04:09] Officials say in total, 20 families were evacuated from three RV parks on Tuesday. All of them were able to return to their homes the same day. I’m Kaylee Hunt in Williamson County.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:21] And Kaylee is joining us now here on Austin Signal to tell us more about the flooding that she saw yesterday. Kaylee, thanks for your reporting and thanks for being here.
Kailey Hunt [00:04:28] Thanks for having me, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:29] So you were near the San Gabriel River yesterday, near one of those RV parks that was being evacuated. Tell us a little bit about what you saw out there.
Kailey Hunt [00:04:36] Yeah, I mean, one of the first things I did when I arrived at the Shady River RV Park in Georgetown was go and look at the river, which is, it’s about a few hundred yards away from the actual campers and homes. And I can tell you that as someone who grew up and lives currently in the area, the water was rushing a lot faster than normal and it was a lot higher as well, the water levels. And it was even beginning to slightly swell over the river bank on the side where the RV park is located. And while I was out there, I actually ran into one of the residents, a gentleman, and he told me that the last time he saw the river that high was during last July’s deadly storms, the one that heavily damaged their park. And so he told him he immediately gathered his stuff and moved out, moved him to higher ground after hearing about the flash flood warning.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:27] Yeah, and a flash flood warning is going to get anybody amped up, I would imagine. Where were they at, generally, and just their levels of rushing or their levels of anxiety yesterday, what could you sense from the residents who were there?
Kailey Hunt [00:05:41] Yeah, I think there was quite a bit of anxiety, a lot of urgency, I would say. That’s how I would describe it. Everybody was just moving with a very big sense of urgency because, you know, a lot these folks returned to the RV park after having lost their homes and belongings last summer. And so, they were very anxious and very much ready to get their stuff. Out of the danger zone in time.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:11] Yeah, and evacuations were ordered at those three RV parks. What does that actually look like whenever evacuations are being required of these RV parks?
Kailey Hunt [00:06:22] Yeah, well, the first thing you notice is there’s going to be like a big law enforcement presence. You know, I was thinking back to last summer when I tried to drive down there, the roads were actually blocked off. That’s how fast the water was moving. This time around I was able to actually get into the RV park. There were sheriff’s deputies and folks from the constable’s office going around to each of the residents, knocking on doors, telling folks, you know, hey, you don’t have to leave, but… Be prepared, the water’s rising, might wanna start moving your things out. And yeah, so just busy, you know, that’s how I would describe it.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:00] Yeah, you were out there along with KUT videographer Michael Manassi. In the video they all shared that we saw some water rescue teams. Were those actually employed or was that just a precautionary measure?
Kailey Hunt [00:07:10] Yeah, that’s right. We were able to video those just as they arrived. Yeah, officials confirmed that those teams were basically only stationed there as a precaution. So yeah, luckily no water rescues were needed yesterday.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:22] We heard from a few folks who were affected by the evacuations in your story, what else did you hear from the residents while you were out there?
Kailey Hunt [00:07:29] Gosh. Well, you know, one of the things that struck me was just how people just talked about how lovely that place is to live. You know, they acknowledged that some people would probably question why they keep coming back to that space, knowing that it’s in a flood zone and has this history and, you, know, the lady Elizabeth Tamez that, you heard in the story. You know, she, she they lost like three vehicles last summer. So, um, but yeah, she says it’s her home. It’s a community.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:03] Yeah, you could hear the passion in her voice that she wanted to stay no matter what. Okay, we’re gonna have a link to Kaylee’s reporting in today’s show notes. Before you get out of here, though, Kaylee, you are the Williamson County reporter for KUT. I know you have been doing some reporting on a data center that was planned for Hutto residents asked the city to rezone the land and they pulled that request. Can you give us an update on what’s happening there?
Kailey Hunt [00:08:24] Yeah, so that project has effectively ended as of them withdrawing their application. The company called Zydeco Development, they’re based here in Austin. They wanted to rezone this piece of land to allow for heavy industrial development. Right now, it’s zoned with the city as multi-family residential. And so, yeah, several community members opposed that request, raising concerns about noise, impacts on the local power grid. And the possible long-term risks of what they think having a data center would have on their homes. And so, yeah, they were actually in the process of filing a formal protest against the company when they withdrew their rezoning request last week. I have reached out to Zydeco just to get a sense from their side of things about why they withdrued their application and have not heard back yet.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:18] Okay, we’ll have links to both of those stories at KUT.org, and you can find more from us at Kut.org. Kaley, thanks for your reporting, thank you for your time. A long-time Austinites will remember that for decades, a Sears department store stood as the centerpiece of the Hancock Center at 41st and Red River streets. It stood vacant since 2019, but this week the building is reopening its doors, this time as a community health care hub for low-income residents. Central Health, Travis County’s local public health district, will begin offering its phase of services at the center starting this Friday. KUT’s health care reporter Olivia Aldridge is here to tell us more. Howdy Olivia. So tell us a little bit about this facility, what sort of services is it providing, and to whom?
Olivia Aldridge [00:10:09] This will be the new flagship location for Central Health, which is the public hospital district in Travis County. That’s an organization that’s responsible for providing healthcare to low-income residents here. It’s by far Central Health’s biggest location, and it’s going to kind of become this major hub for them. So the first floor of this building, this 200,000 square foot building, there’s clinical space. That’s where folks will be able to get primary care, certain kinds of specialty care. Even dentistry and pharmacy services, and then later on the second floor is also going to be the main administrative building for Central Health and two of its partner organizations.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:46] So this is going to be kind of a one-stop shop for lots of different things. This was, as I said, a former Sears. Tell us a little bit about the organizations that are going to part of this facility moving forward in the future.
Olivia Aldridge [00:10:57] Yeah, so Central Health, Community Care, and then Sendero Health Plans, which is Central Health’s insurance affiliate that offers health plans on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. At the opening celebration, um, Travis County Commissioner, Brigid Shea was like, you know, it’s fitting that this used to be a Sears store because this is now sort of a one-stop shop for, as you said, for not shopping, but care. Um And Central Health CEO Pat Lee talked a lot about the value of having these three partners in the same space, Community Care, by the way, being kind of the clinical partner. Because if you’re using the services from one, then you’re likely to be getting services from all three. It’s also significant in another way, because over the past couple of years, there’s been a lot of friction between Central Health and Community Care about their leadership structure and what their relationship would be. With this opening, they’re kind of presenting a unified front and saying we’re here as part of a shared effort to serve the lower income population that we’re charged with.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:56] Yeah, that’s some of the things you’ve been reporting on for a while, some of the things that we’ve talked about here on Austin Signal. And this project has been something you’ve been reporting for a bit now. So you mentioned this first round or this first phase of services is set to begin Friday. What is the timeline for expanded services at this new facility?
Olivia Aldridge [00:12:13] Yep, so on Friday, we’ll see the new location for the David Powell Clinic run by Community Care opening. That’s a clinic that provides treatment for HIV. The pharmacy services and lab services will also open everything else from primary care to secondary care to all that administrative stuff. Dentistry should be coming sometime in 2027.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:36] All right, we have been speaking with Olivia Aldridge. She is KUT’s healthcare reporter and we’ll have a link to her reporting in today’s podcast, Show Notes. Olivia, thank you. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for making us part of your Wednesday. We’ve got more for you coming up after a break, but before we let you go, just wanted to remind you that we are a bit more than a week away from the first ever KUT Fest. Plenty of the KUT voices that you’ve heard here on Austin Signal, just like Olivia Aldridge, are gonna be out at the Fest hosting some panels. And just hanging around with the community. This is our first ever fest. I don’t know if I mentioned that. So we’re trying to do it up big. We have Aaron Franklin, lots of great folks from the community, KUT for Kids. So much to check out. You can find out more at kut.org. Again, that’s happening next Friday and Saturday. So include us in your plans and we’ll see you out there. This is Austin Signal. We’ll be back after a moment. Welcome back. This is Austin Signal. Before she moved from Austin to Rhode Island, everybody knew Lacey as one half of an inseparable duo with her best friend Grace. Lacey is ready to reinvent herself at her new school, but middle school never works out exactly as you plan it. Ain’t that the truth? This is the plot of the new middle school novel When You’re Brave Enough by Austin author Rebecca Benheim. The Texas Standards’ Laura Rice spoke with her about the new novel.
Laura Rice [00:14:27] Middle school can be the worst, but I’m curious what drew you to tell a middle grade story specifically.
Rebecca Bendheim [00:14:36] First of all, I really loved the middle school age before I left to write full-time. I actually taught sixth grade English for years and I really miss it. But the reason that I decided to write a queer middle grade novel specifically is that I had my first crushes on girls when I was around early middle school. And that’s also the time that I first learned what the word lesbian meant because this girl in my school spread this rumor about these girls who were lesbians and I asked what that meant. And she said, they worship the devil and I should steer clear from them as a new student because they might corrupt me. And I didn’t actually end up coming out until I was 20. So I realized that this was actually a really normal experience. Studies show that people, queer kids and teens usually realize they’re queer or trans by the start of early adolescence. And they usually are also hearing a lot of negative messaging about being LGBTQ plus. So I think about this time in my life a lot, I think of my queer students, and I really wanted to write a story where a girl has a crush on her best friend and it’s not this worst nightmare, hide this forever situation, it becomes this beautiful first chance at love.
Laura Rice [00:15:53] Well, you love middle schoolers as a teacher. Did you love that experience as a young teen yourself though? That sounds like that was probably really hard.
Rebecca Bendheim [00:16:03] Yeah, it definitely was hard. It just, it was a lot of being in my head and just being, I guess, worried that people could see through me.
Laura Rice [00:16:13] Well, your character Lacey is in the school musical, worried about her first kiss. Were you a theater kid growing up or what drew you to that part of the story?
Rebecca Bendheim [00:16:22] Yes. I was obsessed with musical theater growing up and I was terrible at it. So one thing I really wanted to do is have a character who gets the lead role because I always wondered what that would feel like. But I also based it off of the play or I had the musical Bye Bye Birdie in the book because I was in Bye Bye birdie in fourth grade and then I was Bye Bye Birdie again in eighth grade. And when I was in it in eighth-grade, the couple, Rosie and Albert, kissed in the final performance. And I was terrified thinking, what if I, when I’m an eighth grader, have to do that and I don’t like the person who’s my co-lead? And so that fear stayed with me and I gave it to Lacey.
Laura Rice [00:17:08] You know, we always love to talk about Texas connections in books. Lacey makes sort of the opposite move that you did from Austin to the East Coast. You came from the East coast to Austin. I’m curious how Texas peeks through in your narrative.
Rebecca Bendheim [00:17:24] Yes, I really love the Texas scenes in this book. So Lacey, when she moves, she’s so excited to be in Rhode Island, to start over, to not be known as this super eager, strange girl, Grace’s friend. But then her memories from Texas come back to her with this dreamlike quality. There’s a scene where they’re at the South Congress Bridge watching the bats, and there’s another scene in Barton Springs where they are playing a game and they’re pretending. To drown and then save each other, but then she starts actually getting scared and Grace is the only one who can tell it’s for real and helps her breathe through that. So she’s slowly realizing that her feelings for Grace are more complicated than she thought through these memories of being in Texas.
Laura Rice [00:18:11] What do you hope that readers of all ages get out of your book if they pick it up?
Rebecca Bendheim [00:18:17] That’s a great question. I feel like I have different hopes for different readers. My biggest dream for this book is that it gets into the hands of queer kids and teens who need to see someone like them having a happy ending and not just in 20 years but right there in middle school. But I also hope other people read this book. I hope other kids and teams read it and kind of peers might be dealing with, thinking about what their futures could look like, and, you know, that them being queer or trans is not this inhibiting, negative, hard thing. It can also be this beautiful thing that opens them up to a more authentic life, a more creative way of living, and a lot of happiness and love. And then I also hope adults read this book. Um, there are a lot of misconceptions about queer kids right now and I just would love adults to read this and be reminded that these are just kids, just like any other kid who are trying to figure out how to make their way in the world. And you know, sometimes making mistakes, sometimes changing their mind, but that they deserve all the support and agency and love and patience that you would give any kid.
Laura Rice [00:19:42] Well, I think that that gets to a question I was gonna struggle to ask, which is about how Texas has been not always so receptive of books like this about queer kids or for queer kids, right? I mean, there’s the debate over what is available in school libraries. What are your thoughts as this brand new book of yours that you’ve poured your heart into is might face that sort of controversy?
Rebecca Bendheim [00:20:10] This is, it’s really hard for me to think about, because I really, like I said, my biggest dream is to get into the hands of actual queer kids and teens. And it is already getting some backlash. I have been, you know, posting about it online as a debut author does. And I’ve gotten a lot of really negative messages from people hoping to ban it in the future. I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope they forget about it. But my thoughts are that I just wish that the people doing this would read these books and not just mine, other amazing queer middle grades like the Queen B’s of Tybee County, which is about a southern basketball star seventh grade boy who ends up moving to or going to his grandma’s for the summer and then learning drag and doing drag for the first time. Like these, I just want them to read these book and understand that this isn’t about something that corrupt kids. These are not books about sex. These are books about kids being kids and kids figuring out who they are. And there is nothing negative or inappropriate about these books. And I’m really trying to do all I can to fight this. I recently testified at the State Board of Education meeting. There’s another meeting coming up that I’m hoping to go to to just hopefully let our lawmakers know that most Texans want kids to be able to read any age appropriate book that publishers say are for their age range and that there’s nothing dangerous about these books. It’s actually dangerous to censor them and give kids the message that they don’t belong and that who they are is not okay. That’s what causes mental health struggles in these queer kids and teens.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:57] That was the voice of Austin-based author Rebecca Benheim speaking to Texas Standard’s Laura Rice about Benheim’s new novel, When You’re Brave Enough, which is out now. That is it for today’s show. Thank you for spending some time with us. We’re going to have links to the stories that we shared with you in the podcast show notes, and you can find more over at kut.org slash signal. And there’s always lots more news to be found. You can keep up with us on the KUT app. And online at KUT.org. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director, Alexa Hart is our producer, and Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m your host, Jerry Kihono. We’ll be back at the same time tomorrow. We’ll talk to you then. This is Austin Signal. Have a wonderful day.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
