New book on July 4 flood premieres Sept. 9 at Schreiner, with a chapter dedicated to the late Jane Ragsdale

A new book chronicling the July 4, 2025 flood and its aftermath will debut next month with a free public event at Schreiner University.

Tom Fox, who also established the Texas Podcast Network and serves on the board of the Museum of Western Art, wrote “Deluge Before Dawn: Heartbreak, Survival, and Resilience After the Guadalupe River Raged.” Fox said the project began as a way to process his own experience of the disaster.

“I wrote the book to help me work through my own grief,” Fox said. “And I hope people who read it, it might help them work through any of those issues as well.”

The book traces the crisis from its opening hours through the long recovery, following the 911 dispatchers — including Riley Gordon and teams from KPD, the sheriff’s office and Bandera County — who fielded the initial calls, then Dalton Rice standing up the Emergency Operations Center, and former Kerr County Precinct 2 Commissioner Tom Moser building a new river warning system in the aftermath.

“I tried to track what happened in the flood, in the immediate aftermath, the 911 operators, Dalton Rice raising up and getting the emergency operations center going, and then moved to the longer-term recovery, the UGRA, Tom Moer putting the warning system in place, certainly the community foundation and the great work they’ve did,” Fox said.

He said the dispatchers’ work under pressure stayed with him throughout the writing process.

“The heroism of the 911 operators who did that — it still amazes me when I just read or listen to what they went through those hours of July 4th, 2025,” Fox said.

Fox said he had to build out his own understanding of the flood’s mechanics to write the book accurately. “I had to learn the science, the hydrology, the meteorology, the topography, the geology,” he said.

One chapter examines the role local press plays in preserving a community’s institutional memory of extreme weather. Fox said that memory is what turns early-warning technology into something that actually saves lives.

“An idea is great, but you have to execute,” Fox said. “And we have to continue to execute, and we have to continue to keep an institutional memory of what happened on July 4th of 2025, and then in July of 2026 as well.”

The book also devotes a chapter to grief processed through music and art, including Skyler Darington’s performance of “Hallelujah” at a Tivy football game in 2025.

A chapter for Jane Ragsdale

A separate chapter is dedicated to Jane Ragsdale, the longtime leader of Heart of the Hills and a member of the Schreiner University Board of Trustees, who died in the flood. Marta Diffen, who spoke alongside Fox, said Ragsdale’s stature in the camp community was unmatched.

“Anybody in the camp world just held her at such a high level for her compassion and for her integrity and for her love of what camp meant to so many people, and the lives that she changed,” Diffen said.

Diffen said Ragsdale’s gift was making the people in front of her feel seen. “Her ability to transform people just by being in front of them,” Diffen said.

Fox agreed, describing Ragsdale’s presence in both intimate and crowded settings.

“She could be with you one-on-one, or she could be with you in a room of 50 people, and you felt like you were the most important person in that room,” Fox said. “She had that ability to make you feel special and important.”

Ragsdale was also instrumental at the trustee level in bringing football back to Schreiner.

Launch event details

The book’s premiere is set for Wednesday, Sept. 9, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the CCAC Ballrooms on the Schreiner campus. The event is free and open to the community.

Diffen said the evening opens with a reception before Fox reads from the book. “At 5:30, we’re going to do a brief reception, so people can come and have the reception and maybe mingle with Tom a little bit,” Diffen said. “And then we’ll have him do the reading, probably starting around 6:00, read some excerpts from the book.”

The night closes with a book signing and sale. Fox said print copies will be available starting Sept. 1.