Alfonso Solis, leading Hispanic volunteer rescuer in Texas tells VOZ: ‘I went to support the Latino community’

"I remember what it's like to be in the waiting room ... waiting for a miracle," volunteer rescuer Alfonso Solis tells VOZ. The 47-year-old son of Mexican immigrants has become a symbol of the volunteers who traveled from across the country to help communities devastated by the July 4 floods.

Solis was widowed nearly 18 years ago — “very young,” he recalls. In time, he transformed his grief into a mission: from his home in Mesquite, Dallas, he helps search for the missing. The day after the floods, he cut short his vacation and rushed to the heart of the disaster zone.

When he arrived in Kerr County, he found himself with an unexpected mission: "BILINGUALS NEEDED," he would later write on Facebook. "There is a language barrier between the Latino community and the authorities," he explained to VOZ. There are families who are desperately searching for their loved ones but can't communicate with the people who could help them. 

"I went to support the Latino community," he says.

The unprecedented floods were also unprecedented in Soris’ personal history: "This is something a little different... [on previous occasions] I found several people, dead and alive... I pulled bodies out of a creek, I found suicide victims, but never a child... and never something of this magnitude."

At last count, there were 107 dead in Kerr: 70 of them adults, 37 children. Three are still missing. Statewide there are at least 135 people reported dead.

"I haven't been there when they found someone, but it's something [that] you have to prepare for," Solis said. "It's something strong." He was with families when they received the worst news. "It hurts," he added. 

What is his one piece of advice? "You have to have faith... every storm comes, every storm also passes. This too shall pass."