Texas salon owner rebuilds after deadly floods destroy 2-week-old business
Nelson's Vintage Hair Co., which opened on June 21, was among the countless properties damaged when unprecedented flooding struck Kerr County on July 4, claiming at least 95 lives and leaving more than 170 people missing.
"The community itself is still in shock. I know I am," Nelson told ABC News. "This is overwhelming. Nothing like this have I ever seen living here."
Despite losing her business, Nelson immediately stepped up to help her community. A former member of the Ingraham Volunteer Fire Department, she returned to assist with emergency response efforts.
"When I woke up Friday morning and couldn't get to my business, my reaction was to call and say, 'What do you need me to do?'" Nelson explained. "Staying busy has helped me get through this."
MORE: 'I needed to get to my boys': Mother recounts Texas camp flood rescue
As the community begins to recover, Nelson faces difficult decisions about rebuilding. While her landlord is already working to restore the building, removing mud and bleaching the structure down to its studs, questions remain about insurance coverage and future flood risks.
"I fully intend on staying with my landlord," Nelson said. "But there are some concerns about whether insurance will cover us again, and whether this could ever happen again in my lifetime."
The devastating floods have sparked discussions about improving the region's flood warning systems. The Texas Legislature is now considering this issue as part of an upcoming special session, with Gov. Greg Abbott including flood-related measures among his priority agenda items.
MORE: Texas flood: Kickoff meeting for Kerr County warning system project had been planned for mid-July
When asked about the warning system debate, Nelson remained thoughtful.
"I think a flood warning system would be a good choice," she said, adding, "Moving forward, there will be measures, one way or another, to protect our community."
The flooding, which dumped as much as 15 inches of rain in some areas, has become one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent Texas history, particularly impacting Kerr County, where 36 children were among those who lost their lives.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Fox News
2 minutes ago
- Fox News
Pro-life group 'elated' after Planned Parenthood shutters Houston facilities: 'Tremendous victory'
EXCLUSIVE: A pro-life group is celebrating a "tremendous victory" after Planned Parenthood announced two of its facilities in Houston, Texas, will be shutting down this fall, as Republican lawmakers continue to target the organization. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, 40 Days for Life CEO and founder Shawn Carney, a Houston resident, expressed "both personal and professional elation" at the shuttering of the facilities, including the 78,000-square-foot clinic that he said was the largest abortion facility in the Western Hemisphere. "This is massive news for the pro-life movement and shows the direction that Planned Parenthood is going, which is down," Carney said. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast — which runs six clinics in the Houston area and two in Louisiana — will close its Prevention Park and Southwest centers on Sept. 30, while the other Houston facilities will be acquired by the organization's largest Texas affiliate. This comes amid several closures of Planned Parenthood facilities in various states, including New York, where the organization is selling its only Manhattan health center building for $39 million. Facilities in GOP-led states with abortion restrictions, including Texas, have also been forced to cease procedures following the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe V. Wade and sent decisions regarding abortion back to the states. "Now they are closing the largest abortion facility in the world," Carney said. "Their flagship. They're very proud of it in Houston, Texas. They're finally closing it, and it's unbelievable." The company cited rising costs, staffing shortages and low reimbursement rates as the reasons for closing the two Houston facilities. GOP officials in recent years have made repeated attempts to shut down Planned Parenthood, even after nearly all abortions were banned under Texas law. The Trump administration has sought to impose funding cuts to Planned Parenthood that could lead to the closure of additional facilities. A provision in a GOP-backed bill would end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from the program in 2023. A judge granted a preliminary injunction earlier this week blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood member organizations that either do not provide abortions or did not meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year. Carney said 40 Days for Life has prayed and held vigils outside the Houston mega-facility since 2006. "Countless people have gone out, offered alternatives. We've had pro-life buses outside to do free ultrasounds. There have been so many lives saved, but to be honest, it just seemed like they were Goliath and it didn't matter if we were David," he said, adding that the "behemoth" facility even provided late-term abortions at one point. "They were just going to always be open and always be victorious." Carney described the closing of the facilities as a "tremendous victory" for the pro-life movement and said it represents "one of the biggest victories that we've had" following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. "Planned Parenthood has always been very top-heavy in D.C., and that's been a weakness for the pro-life movement. But once [the court] sent it back to the states, it was sending it back to the place where the pro-life movement was the strongest, which was the grassroots," he said. The closure of the two Houston facilities shows "more than anything else" that "the pro-life movement is built for a post-Roe America," Carney said, adding that Planned Parenthood is not a "monster that can't go away." "They are very, very vulnerable. When you look at the New York closing and the Houston closing, this is what that represents. All the nonsense about other services and serving women and helping low-income women. Because when you take away abortions or you offer alternatives, they close, and they close their most prosperous locations," he said.

Associated Press
3 hours ago
- Associated Press
As the ADA turns 35, groups fighting for disability rights could see their federal dollars slashed
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Nancy Jensen believes she'd still be living in an abusive group home if it wasn't shut down in 2004 with the help of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, which for decades has received federal money to look out for Americans with disabilities. But the flow of funding under the Trump administration is now in question, disability rights groups nationwide say, dampening their mood as Saturday marks the 35th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. Federal dollars pay for much of their work, including helping people who seek government-funded services and lawsuits now pushing Iowa and Texas toward better community services. Documents outlining President Donald Trump's budget proposals show they would zero out funds earmarked for three grants to disability rights centers and slash funding for a fourth. Congress' first discussion of them, by the Senate Appropriations Committee, is set for Thursday, but the centers fear losing more than 60% of their federal dollars. The threat of cuts comes as the groups expect more demand for help after Republicans' tax and budget law complicated Medicaid health coverage with a new work-reporting requirement. There's also the sting of the timing: this year is the 50th anniversary of another federal law that created the network of state groups to protect people with disabilities, and Trump's proposals represent the largest potential cuts in that half-century, advocates said. The groups are authorized to make unannounced visits to group homes and interview residents alone. 'You're going to have lots of people with disabilities lost,' said Jensen, now president of Colorado's advisory council for federal funding of efforts to protect people with mental illnesses. She worries people with disabilities will have 'no backstop' for fighting housing discrimination or seeking services at school or accommodations at work. The potential budget savings are a shaving of copper from each federal tax penny. The groups receive not quite $180 million a year — versus $1.8 trillion in discretionary spending. Trump's administration touts flexibility for sta tes The president's Office of Management and Budget didn't respond to an email seeking a response to the disability rights groups' criticism. But in budget documents, the administration argued its proposals would give states needed flexibility. The U.S. Department of Education said earmarking funds for disability rights centers created an unnecessary administrative burden for states. Trump's top budget adviser, Russell Vought, told senators in a letter that a review of 2025 spending showed too much went to 'niche' groups outside government. 'We also considered, for each program, whether the governmental service provided could be provided better by State or local governments (if provided at all),' Vought wrote. Disability rights advocates doubt that state protection and advocacy groups — known as P&As — would see any dollar not specifically earmarked for them. They sue states, so the advocates don't want states deciding whether their work gets funded. The 1975 federal law setting up P&As declared them independent of the states, and newer laws reinforced that. 'We do need an independent system that can hold them and other wrongdoers accountable,' said Rocky Nichols, the Kansas center's executive director. Helping people with disabilities navigate Medicaid Nichols' center has helped Matthew Hull for years with getting the state to cover services, and Hull hopes to find a job. He uses a wheelchair; a Medicaid-provided nurse helps him run errands. 'I need to be able to do that so I can keep my strength up,' he said, adding that activity preserves his health. Medicaid applicants often had a difficult time working through its rules even before the tax and budget law's recent changes, said Sean Jackson, Disability Rights Texas' executive director. With fewer dollars, he said, 'As cases are coming into us, we're going to have to take less cases.' The Texas group receives money from a legal aid foundation and other sources, but federal funds still are 68% of its dollars. The Kansas center and Disability Rights Iowa rely entirely on federal funds. 'For the majority it would probably be 85% or higher,' said Marlene Sallo, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, which represents P&As. The Trump administration's proposals suggest it wants to shut down P&As, said Steven Schwartz, who founded the Center for Public Representation, a Massachusetts-based organization that works with them on lawsuits. Investigating allegations of abuse and pushing states Federal funding meant a call in 2009 to Disability Rights Iowa launched an immediate investigation of a program employing men with developmental disabilities in a turkey processing plant. Authorities said they lived in a dangerous, bug-infested bunkhouse and were financially exploited. Without the dollars, executive director Catherine Johnson said, 'That's maybe not something we could have done.' The Kansas center's private interview in 2004 with one of Jensen's fellow residents eventually led to long federal prison sentences for the couple operating the Kaufman House, a home for people with mental illnesses about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Wichita. And it wasn't until Disability Rights Iowa filed a federal lawsuit in 2023 that the state agreed to draft a plan to provide community services for children with severe mental and behavioral needs. For 15 years, Schwartz's group and Disability Rights Texas have pursued a federal lawsuit alleging Texas warehouses several thousand people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in nursing homes without adequate services. Texas put at least three men in homes after they'd worked in the Iowa turkey plant. Last month, a federal judge ordered work to start on a plan to end the 'severe and ongoing' problems. Schwartz said Disability Rights Texas did interviews and gathered documents crucial to the case. 'There are no better eyes or ears,' he said. ___ Hunter reported from Atlanta.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Texas Instruments (TXN) Falls 13.3% on Weak Outlook
We recently published . Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:TXN) is one of the worst performers on Wednesday. Texas Instruments slashed its share prices by 13.34 percent on Wednesday to close at $186.25 apiece as investor sentiment was dampened by the company's softer outlook for the rest of the year amid weak demand. Following the release of its second quarter earnings performance, Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:TXN) said that it expects third quarter earnings per share to settle between $1.36 and $1.6, below analyst consensus. Revenue outlook, on the other hand, was pegged at $4.45 billion to $4.8 billion, in line with Wall Street expectations. In the second quarter of the year, net income increased by 15 percent to $1.295 billion from $1.127 billion, while revenues were higher by 16 percent to $4.448 billion from $3.822 billion year-on-year. Photo by Slejven Djurakovic on Unsplash Following the results, investment firm TD Cowen lowered its price target for the company by 6 percent to $230 from $245, but maintained a 'buy' recommendation for its stock. While we acknowledge the potential of TXN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the .