In the hours before sunrise on 4 July, more than 10 inches of rain fell on Kerr County, Texas, USA. By some estimates, it added up to 100 billion gallons of water, more than the daily flow of water over Niagara Falls. The torrential downpour caused the Guadalupe River to rise 36 feet, killing at least 108 people and damaging thousands of properties.

 

In the days that followed, as he stepped in to lend a hand in the recovery, Larry Agee met a survivor who was distraught and still in shock. “He’d lost everything,” Agee said. The man was fixated on one loss in particular: The tall flagpole in front of his home had been swept away and he desperately wanted it back.  In the aftermath of the flooding in Texas, Larry Agee (right) and his son, Adam, raise a U.S. flag along the Guadalupe River. Courtesy of Vanessa Agee