steve-niles

Flash floods swiftly moved through the Austin area today after up to a foot of rain fell in a 12-hour period, closing roads, sparking rescues and canceling the final day of the popular Austin City Limits Music Festivals. Unfortunately, Steve Niles and family were affected by the downpour.

Niles posted this update on his Facebook page earlier today:

Woke up at 6am to water rushing into the house. Already ankle deep by the time we saw it. We got as much as we could off the ground and tried to block but there wasn’t much we could do. The worst was trying to get to Gil. It was waist deep almost and strong enough to throw around logs. I reached him and he was submerged and freaking out. Don’t remember much more then lifting him and carrying him all the way back to the house. Looking back I can see how scary it was.

We are securing the house as much as we can and going through the damage. A scrapbook full of original art I’ve kept for 30 years is gone. A lot more.

Our friends Belinda and Steve are setting up a fund to help. I feel terrible about this but once things settle I’ll have to face up that we need help. I just wish I could catch my breath for 5 minutes and I can make my own money. Austin has had other ideas I guess.

We’ll keep you posted. We’re sort of trapped here for right now. Going to pack and move as much as we can before the next storm hits.

Thank you guys so much.

Most of the original art and the pets are safe with help from Bernie Wrightson, but Niles doesn’t have flood insurance and there’s a lot of damage that needs to be fixed. Please consider donating whatever you can spare to [email protected] and spread the word. Our hearts go out to Niles and the other Austinites during these miserable times.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

7 COMMENTS

  1. My heart goes out to them. My friend’s comic book store flooded years ago, and I’ll never forget him telling of watching his script for Titanic float away. Monica used to be part of a really cool goth band called Faith and the Muse. I’ll contact some people I know in those circles to get the word out, too.

  2. Brings back nightmare memories of the Feb 1986 flooding of northern Calif which destroyed most of Best of Two Worlds’ central warehouse which contained a million comic books which altered my life forever. BTW’s warehouse was 43 miles south of where Eclipse Comics’s HQ was then located in Forrestville along the Russian River which went 57 feet above it’s banks. Treasure the fond memories of what used to be and try real hard to focus on future ones. My heart goes out.

  3. Please help Steve! He’s helped many, selflessly, over the years…and in a greedy,venal industry has always been a stand-up guy.

  4. There’s not a person I know in the world more caring than steve. When tragedy hit our town and the comic world year and a half ago in aurora, Steve was not only the first guy to call and help us out but, he flew out here to sign books or whatever to raise money for victims. He is a true legend to us here and for this to happen to him is very tragic. I will be doing everything I can to try and repay him for all the good he has done for soooooo many other people in the world. Sincerely Jason Farnsworth Founder of the non profit charity aurora rise

  5. I recently heard of this through his FB posts, but I was unable to comment directly to him to offer my support. I have decided to offer a funky “Frankenstein’s Monster” t-shirt through redbubble.com where all profits will go to the [email protected]

    I know Steve is a big “monster” fan, it was just by chance I had started working on a digital paint of the monster weeks ago. So the t-shirt design is from my sketch for the piece just edited a little.

Comments are closed.