Texas couple details their miraculous escape from floods
'I heard a noise, and we were trying to connect the dots when the water started. The water was up.' That water was the Guadelupe River bursting its banks and causing deadly flooding that has so far claimed the lives of 80 people, 28 of them children. The couple live less than 100ft from its brackish brown waters, but their house sits on top of a small bank and has never previously been flooded.
But all that changed in the early hours of Friday morning – sparking a terrifying ordeal that saw the pair submerged in flood water that came up to their shoulders for over an hour as they struggled to hold on to their porch while being battered with strong currents. 'Some people are saying there weren't emergency alerts ,' Jennifer said. 'There were. But Jack's phone was in the living room, and my phone was on silent, so it wasn't loud enough to wake you up.'
The power had gone out leaving them in pitch darkness while the flood waters were rising so rapidly, their home was flooded with four feet of water in less than four minutes. 'I grabbed a tote bag, and I ran to the back office and got our birth certificates and passports,' said a tearful Jennifer. 'It's dark, I can't see anything, but I could feel those, so I grabbed them, then our phones and chargers, money and our medicine.
'By that time, the water was so high, we couldn't open a door to get out. So, we had to go through a window. 'Everything in our house was floating, and the water was coming at what felt like 100 miles an hour towards where we were. 'It was crash, bang, boom, refrigerators, big armoires, everything. And it was all happening in the dark.'
Once outside, the couple realized their predicament was even worse than they had realized with the surging currents threatening to tow them and their dogs Georgie and Zumi out into the flood. Jennifer said she tried to climb onto the roof with miniature mongrel Zumi but proved too petite at 5ft 2' to make the climb. Meanwhile Jack was trapped at ground level with the much bigger Alsatian-cross Georgie who was too heavy to hoist into the air.
Instead, the pair climbed onto the low wall surrounding their porch and clung on for over an hour even as the flood water rose to nine feet and surged around them. Jennifer said: 'It's dark and you're frantic. And you do the funniest things when you're in a panic like that. 'We didn't know we were gonna only have four minutes in the house, but we knew we had to get out of the house.
'But I was thinking, I gotta have on a bra. I got on a bra. And I got on my tennis shoes, but I forgot my glasses. 'I didn't even realize I didn't have glasses on until after it the waters subsided, and we went back into the house.' By the time the water went down, both Jack and Jennifer were battered and bruised thanks to the surging current that had tossed them around like ragdolls.
'When we were in it was so scary,' Jennifer told the Daily Mail. 'We're standing on the wall. We're in water up to the tops of our shoulders. 'I'm thinking, OK, it's gonna go up, up, up, and we're about to die. I was hoping not. 'It was our 31st anniversary to so I just told him 'Happy Anniversary' and hoped for the best.' She added: 'Thank God we got out when we did, because we probably would have been trapped by all the furniture.'
When they finally did manage to get off their perch, it was to a scene of devastation: a home filled with foul-smelling mud, a garden scattered with dying fish and most of their possessions swept away. Some of their neighbors died while others saw their homes trashed and their cars destroyed. Jack, a furniture maker, also lost most of the lumber – which was worth $10,000 - stacked outside his home workshop as well as most of the tools needed to make the garden chairs he specializes in – a devastating financial blow that he says will mean he will now need to work well into his 80s.
The pair, who are currently living in a cabin lent to them by friends, say the kindness of the local community is helping them get through the dark time – with neighbors and friends descending to help them clear the mud from their home and salvage what possessions they can. They are also providing a steady stream of food and drink, as well as letting the couple do their laundry at their homes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
House swept away as flash flooding hits mountain village in New Mexico
Floodwaters trapped people in their homes and cars Tuesday in a mountain village that is a popular summer retreat in southern New Mexico as monsoon rains triggered flash flooding and an entire house was swept downstream. Emergency crews carried out at least 85 swift water rescues in the Ruidoso area, including of people who were trapped in their homes and cars, said Danielle Silva of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. No injuries or deaths were immediately reported, but Silva said the extent of the destruction wouldn't be known until the water recedes. Officials urged residents to seek higher ground in the afternoon as the waters of the Rio Ruidoso rose nearly 19 feet (2.7 meters) in a matter of minutes amid heavy rainfall. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in the area, stripped of nearby vegetation by recent wildfires. A weather service flood gauge and companion video camera showed churning waters of the Rio Ruidoso surge over the river's banks into surrounding forest. Streets and bridges were closed in response. Kaitlyn Carpenter, an artist in Ruidoso, was riding her motorcycle through town Tuesday afternoon when the storm started to pick up, and she sought shelter at the riverside Downshift Brewing Company with about 50 other people. She started to film debris rushing down the Rio Ruidoso when she spotted a house float by with a familiar turquoise door. It belonged to the family of one of her best friends. Her friend's family was not in the house and is safe, she said. 'I've been in that house and have memories in that house, so seeing it come down the river was just pretty heartbreaking,' Carpenter said. 'I just couldn't believe it.' Two National Guard rescue teams and several local teams already were in the area when the flooding began, Silva said, and more Guard teams were expected. The area has been especially vulnerable to flooding since the summer of 2024, when the South Fork and Salt fires raced across tinder-dry forest and destroyed an estimated 1,400 homes and structures. Residents were forced to flee a wall of flames, only to grapple with intense flooding later that summer. 'We know that the water levels seemed to be higher than they were last summer,' Silva said. 'It is a significant amount of water flowing throughout, some it in new areas that didn't flood last year.' Three shelters opened for people who could not return home. The sight brought back painful memories for Carpenter, whose art studio was swept away during a flood last year. Outside, the air smelled of gasoline, and loud crashes could be heard as the river knocked down trees in its path. 'It's pretty terrifying,' she said. Cory State, who works at the Downshift Brewing Company, welcomed in dozens of residents as the river surged and hail pelted the windows. The house floating by was 'just one of the many devastating things about today,' he said.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Floods death toll set to soar FAR higher than feared as sheer terror of victim who couldn't be saved emerges
The death toll in the devastating Fourth of July weekend floods which tore through Texas has risen to 111, but authorities fear that number could more than double in the coming days and weeks. At least 173 people remain missing five days after a '30-foot tsunami wall of water' wiped out cabins along the Guadalupe River and destroyed everything in its path. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that number could continue to rise as efforts to track down unaccounted for people continue. But hopes of finding survivors are rapidly fading as the hours go by and it is becoming increasingly apparent that the rescue mission is shifting to recovery. Officials confirmed today the last 'live rescue' was carried out on Friday. In the four days since, they had only recovered bodies from the debris. 'We will not stop until we identify, recover every single body,' Abbott said on Tuesday afternoon. One of the tragic stories to emerge from the floods on Tuesday was the death of 64-year-old Sherry Richardson. Early Friday morning, her cabin along Little Creek River in Liberty Hill, Texas, was swept away by the rapid moving waters. Her daughter Delilah Greenslet said Richardson phoned 911 as she tried to seek help during the crisis. She reportedly spent 30 minutes on the phone to a first responder while climbing to the loft of her two-story cabin before the line finally cut out. She was last known to be trying to get onto the roof of her cabin. 'I just find it so hard to believe that we had no warning,' Greenslet said. 'We need some answers here in Texas.' Authorities are still working to identify many of the bodies which have been recovered. The victims include at least 30 children, many were little girls who were enjoying their summer at Camp Mystic - a century-old, Christian, all girls camp. Some 27 campers and counselors tragically died when the cabins primarily housing eight to 10 year old girls were swept away before daybreak on Friday. At least five girls and 19-year-old counselor Katherine Ferruzzo are still missing. 'The primary job right now continues to be locating everybody who was affected by this flood,' Abbott said. He said many of those who are not accounted for were staying in state's Hill Country but did not register at a camp or hotel. In the hardest hit Kerr County, 87 people have died and 161 remain missing, while seven bodies have been found in Travis and at least 10 remain missing. Eight people have died in Kendall, and Burnet has suffered five fatalities, with one person still missing. Williamson County has tragically lost three people, with one still missing, and at least one body has been located in Tom Green County. Abbott also clarified that state officials were aware that flooding was a possibility over the Fourth of July weekend, adding that resources had been deployed to the area for two days before the storm hit. 'We were ready with the resources on the ground to be able to quickly respond,' he said, but 'no one would know that that would be a 30-foot high tsunami wall of water.'
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic's disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood, records show
Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic's emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children. The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding 'procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.' Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor. Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp's preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country. The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area on July 3 at 1:18 p.m. That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground. Camp Mystic, established in 1926, did not do that and was especially hard hit when the river rose from 14 feet (4.2 meters) to 29.5 feet (9 meters) within 60 minutes in the early morning hours of the disaster. Flooding on that stretch of the Guadalupe starts at about 10 feet (3 meters). A wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river's edge. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. The uncertainty about what happened at Mystic comes as local officials have repeatedly dodged questions about who was monitoring the weather and what measures were taken ahead of the flooding. At least 27 campers and counselors died during the floods, and officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found. Among the dead was Richard 'Dick' Eastland, the camp's beloved director described by campers as a father figure. The potential for heavy rains had put precautions in motion as the state activated an emergency response plan and moved resources into the central Texas area. The state inspected Camp Mystic on July 2, the same day the Texas Division of Emergency Management activated emergency response resources ahead of the anticipated flooding. The inspection found no deficiencies or violations at the camp in a long list of health and safety criteria. The camp had 557 campers and more than 100 staffers at the time between its Guadalupe and Cypress Lake locations. The disaster plans are required to be posted in all camp buildings but aren't filed with the state, said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services. 'We do not have them,' Anton wrote in an email. 'You'd have to get it from the camp.' Camp Mystic did not respond to requests for comment on its emergency plan. In a statement on its website, the camp said it has been 'in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls.' Camp Mystic notes that it is licensed by the state and a member of the Camping Association for Mutual Progress, which says its goal is to 'raise health and safety standards' for summer camps. Leaders of that association didn't return messages. The American Camp Association said Tuesday that Camp Mystic is not accredited with that organization, whose standards focus on safety and risk management. A spokesperson declined to say whether the camp previously had been accredited with the association, which describes itself as 'the only nationwide accrediting organization for all year-round and summer camps.' 'Our thoughts are with the entire community of campers, families and staff during this devastating time,' the spokesperson, Lauren McMillin, wrote in an email.
