[music with photos]
[Tom begins speaking] Hey everybody! We're here at the makeshift headquarters of Stephen F Austin State Park
and with us today is Tom Shaughnessy.
He is the president of the Friends Group of Stephen F Austin State Park.
And we want Tom to tell you a little bit about what that means to the state park and how
that can really help the state park get back and going.
So Tom, take it away.
[Tom Shaughnessy begins] Alright, thank you Tom.
Thank you Stacie.
Thanks for having me.
Like Tom said, my name is Tom Shaughnessy and not only am I president of the Friends
of Stephen F Austin State Park guys, but I'm also a frequent visitor out here.
I'm a volunteer with the Texas Outdoor Family training families on how to enjoy the great
outdoors and how to prepare them for camping.
I'm also a leader with the Boy Scouts of America, I'm also a community member.
I live in Austin County about 20 miles here from the state park.
And thank you guys from coming out and sharing with us your experience and what we're doing
and what we're seeing out here at the park.
As you're aware we have had some unfortunate situations out here with weather and the spring
time floodings that effected Austin County also effected the park drastically.
And we are in the process of with Texas Parks and Wildlife management and headquarters and
rebuilding the park.
One of the park executive directors said he added that state parks are resilient and we
want to be able to prove that right that we are going to bounce back.
And so what we're here for today is we need your help.
Texas Parks and Wildlife as a whole has budgets and they have also been hurt this year by
numerous park closures and weather related incidents.
And we do have some resources available but not all and we don't have too is time.
[Stacie begins speaking] So yeah y'all you know that we are huge supporters and lovers
of all of the Texas State Parks.
We grew up in the Texas State Parks.
We love to visit the parks.
And you know we haven't been to a park yet that we haven't just loved our experience.
Stephen F Austin State Park though is a little special for us.
It's close to our home.
This is just north of I-10 and just west of Houston in San Felipe, Texas.
So for us it's extremely close to our sticks and bricks home and it's what we consider
to be our home park.
Every time we've had a new RV this is where we bring it out to test it out and give it
its shake down cruise.
We're members of the Friends Group here at the park and you know we haven't seen the
park have trouble like this in a long time.
It is going to be hopefully not too long, but it's already been a longer closure than
any of us were hoping for.
You're going to see.
We're going to take you on a behind the scenes tour.
The park is closed right now to the public.
You cannot come to visit.
So please don't hop in your car and drive here and think you're going to jump right
in.
That's not going to be how it's going to work.
For the safety of the public there's a lot of work that needs to be done here.
But they've been kind enough to let us come in and take us on a guided tour so that you
can see first hand through our video what the park is trying to come back from.
So thanks for your time watching.
Let's go see the park.
This is the headquarters office / store at Stephen F Austin State Park.
Today's date is July 22, 2016.
So for those of you who are familiar with the park you'll know that back in 2013 they
built their first cabin.
And this is it.
And it's a great facility, has furniture on the inside that was handmade here in the park,
has air conditioning, heating, refrigerator, cooking, everything you need.
Great great great cabin.
Fully ADA compliant.
This is the water line for the cabin.
It is way up over my head.
It basically submerged the entire cabin.
So what you see out here are things that they have pulled out of the cabin as they are trying
to get everything cleaned up.
It looks like you can just imagine I mean the water up here.
Everything had to be floating inside this cabin.
There's still debris on the floor and everything is covered in dirt.
It will take a lot of cleaning to get this back in the shape that it was.
So we were just walking around over in the shelter area and we noticed this huge hole.
I don't know if you can see this thing but it is at least a foot and a half deep.
It's because one of these posts this came up out of the ground.
There used to be one of these right here.
And it came up out of the ground and floated away.
That tells you the power of water.
This is one of the shelters.
And again it's right over by the cabin so this is an area where the water was extremely
high.
You can see the debris that is still on these windows.
And it's not only on the outside.
It's also on the inside.
So it's both sides just full.
[Tom: this shelter needs to be power washed] Needs to be power washed and then you've got
WHEW! spider web... the wood buckling down here.
That will have to be repaired.
[Tom speaking] Hey guys just wanted to show you this is one of many many piles throughout
the park right now.
What this is is a bunch of debris that they have already moved to be moved out of here
so they can just mow in the park.
They're doing a good job even trying to keep it mowed back so it doesn't get away from
them.
But you can see it is just a massive amount of debris that's already been removed, but
there's a lot more.
The trails haven't even been touched yet, so there's gonna be a lot more.
[Stacie speaking] So now we're at Bullinger Creek Hall which is the Dining Hall.
And the water here was up to right here.
This is the water line.
You can see it on the glass.
I don't know if it comes off on film, but it was to right here.
And I should tell you we are up several you know a bit from ground level.
Because this building actually sits up.
So we thought we'd take you in and show you what this one looks like.
Had to really pull on that door to get it open.
It's a little bit warped.
So this floor is normally not a dark brown.
This is actually still dirt and mud.
And this wall is buckled.
This is not flush any more.
The restrooms had recently been renovated.
But now they are a mess.
[Tom: I don't normally go into the ladies' room, but I will for this.]
It's gonna take a lot of cleaning to get it back to where it's usable again.
And this is July 22nd.
These floods happened in April, but then the big one was at the end of May.
Water was up to here.
I can see it in the mirror.
[Tom speaking] Hey guys, Tom here.
I just wanted to show you.
We just found this came up on this.
This is a propane tank just outside this barracks area here and it was on this there's a slab
right here.
This is a huge tank.
The water swept it off this slab and this wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the
connection that goes into the ground.
The connection here which is a strong pipe that carries gas is the only thing that kept
this right here.
No telling where they would have found it in the park if they would have even found
it in the park if it didn't stay connected.
But this is just showing the devastation of the water here in the park.
It just virtually damaged every single thing.
So wanted to show this to you.
[Stacie: Power of water.]
Power of water.
[Stacie speaking] Okay y'all now we're at the Nature Center.
This like a lot of the parks, the Nature Center is kind of the educational hub of the state
park.
And for Stephen F Austin State Park this is where they have educational events for kids.
They have all types of displays for people to study about the natural wildlife and things
here in the area.
The water... this is the water line right here.
So again I'm 5 foot six and a half, five foot seven or somewhere in there.
This was some deep deep water.
So we're going to peek in.
Make sure you've got your masks on because it is a mess.
[Tom: yeah] You can see from the inside.
That's the inside of the glass right there.
Wow.
[Tom: just everything's destroyed] And nothing is where it usually is.
This is real bad and I well, you're probably glad we don't have smell-o-vision because
[Tom: it's bad] it does not smell good in here.
[Tom: in fact, we need to get out of here]
[Tom Shaughnessy speaking] So you're wondering how can we help?
You've seen a little bit of footage that RV Texas Y'all has put out.
Some of the damage that has been done here at the park and you're asking so how can you
help?
How can I help?
There's a number of ways that you can help out.
You're welcome to yourself or with your group to volunteer your man hours, volunteer your
time to come and help in the cleaning efforts.
And you can do that through our website FriendsofSFASP.org.
And you're also welcome to visit our Facebook page @friendsofsfasp.
You can reach us through those avenues there.
We also need help monetarily.
As I stated at the Friends of Stephen F Austin State Park our mission is to raise money to
help promote the park, to augment the park's mission, and to also do outreach for the park.
We are a 501(c)3 corporation and all the donations that we receive are tax deductible.
On top of that every penny that we receive through our park goes into operations of the
park, to fund special events, and rebuilding and projects that start here in the park.
[Stacie speaking] Hey y'all!
So that's going to wrap up this trip to Stephen F Austin State Park in San Felipe, Texas.
Again, the park right now, today is July 22, 2016.
The park is not open to the public.
So please though the park would love to have you out here it is not safe for the public.
It is closed.
Please do not get in your car and drive out here to visit.
But we really appreciate the park giving us access and time and taking us around so that
you can see what the park is going to have to do to reopen.
So that you can come back in and enjoy this great place.
Please share this video with your friends.
If you can make a donation, please consider doing that.
We'll put links below the video and also on our social media accounts and on our website
where we are going to write a page about this.
If you have time please sign up for one of the public workdays that's going to be coming
up.
Folks there are a lot of Texas State Parks that have been hit hard this year.
And if there's another one in your area that you can reach out to we encourage you to do
that.
This is unprecedented weather that we've faced the last few years.
And it's gonna take all of us coming together to rebuild our state parks.
[Tom speaking] Yep, that's it.
Well thanks again and [Stacie: Share Share Share!]
Share Share Share!
And we'll see you next time.
[Stacie: Thanks for watching.]
Bye