
Texas teen describes harrowing escape from floodwaters near Guadalupe River: 'There was nowhere to go'
Riata Schoepf, 19, waded through chest-deep waters in the dead of night before she was rescued by a group of strangers who had found respite on the second floor of a two-story home.
The Good Samaritans threw down a sheet when they saw Schoepf and her group in the rapid moving waters, hoisting her and the others to safety.
Schoepf recalled the harrowing experience to NBC News, beginning about 2.30am on Friday, July 4, when she received a knock on her door from hotel staff telling her she must evacuate.
'We walked outside and the water was up to bottom floor doors. It was insane. It just came out of nowhere.'
She, along with most other hotel guests, ran to her car but found herself stuck in unmoving traffic as water lapped at her car door.
'We were just sitting in the car and then you start seeing all the water rising slowly and then it starts getting faster and faster.'
Everyone was trying to leave out the same two exits, both of which ran through water crossings, which were already swelling with water and all but blocked.
'We were at a standstill,' she said. 'At this point, there's nowhere else for us to go.'
Schoepf then noticed people around her were fleeing their cars and decided to join them.
'We started walking down the street and as you're walking you get the water rising higher and higher,' she said.
Finally, as the water began lapping at her chest, Schoepf passed by a two-story house where people on the top floor were using flashlights to see into the fast moving waters below.
'As we were walking by once the water was up close to our chests they were screaming at us to come up because the current was just pulling more and more people in,' she said.
'They let down sheets for us and we started climbing up.'
She recalled two men who risked their lives to push people up the sheet, going out into the dangerous waters to bring more people to safety.
She said they pulled both people and dogs up to safety, leading to about 45 or 50 people cramped into the space.
Everyone in her group who abandoned their cars survived and sought shelter on the roof, but she later learned that others who had opted to stay in the traffic to cross the bridge out of the hotel hadn't made it.
Schoepf had tried to text her father during her daring escape, but the lack of reception in the area meant her messages weren't going through.
She said messages she had sent him between 4am and 5am detailing the rising floodwaters and her perilous journey actually didn't reach him until closer to 8am.
'It was extremely difficult,' she said.
In hard-hit Kerr County, searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, according to officials.
The death toll is now at least 104 deaths across central Texas and expected to continue to rise.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Indonesian volcano Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki spews massive ash cloud as it erupts again
Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki has begun erupting again - at one point shooting an ash cloud 18km (11mi) into the sky - as residents flee their homes once have been no reports of casualties since Monday morning, when the volcano on the island of Flores began spewing ash and lava again. Authorities have placed it on the highest alert level since an earlier round of eruptions three weeks least 24 flights to and from the neighbouring resort island of Bali were cancelled on Monday, though some flights had resumed by Tuesday initial column of hot clouds that rose at 11:05 (03:05 GMT) Monday was the volcano's highest since November, said geology agency chief Muhammad Wafid. "An eruption of that size certainly carries a higher potential for danger, including its impact on aviation," Wafid told The Associated eruption, which was accompanied by a thunderous roar, led authorities to enlarge the exclusion zone to a 7km radius from the central vent. They also warned of potential lahar floods - a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials - if heavy rain twin-peaked volcano erupted again at 19:30 on Monday, sending ash clouds and lava up to 13km into the air. It erupted a third time at 05:53 on Tuesday at a reduced shared overnight show glowing red lava spurting from the volcano's peaks as residents get into cars and buses to flee. More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from the area so far, according to the local disaster management who have stayed put are facing a shortage of water, food and masks, local authorities say."As the eruption continues, with several secondary explosions and ash clouds drifting westward and northward, the affected communities who have not been relocated... require focused emergency response efforts," say Paulus Sony Sang Tukan, who leads the Pululera village, about 8km from Lewotobi Laki-laki."Water is still available, but there's concern about its cleanliness and whether it has been contaminated, since our entire area was blanketed in thick volcanic ash during yesterday's [eruptions]," he said. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as Laki-laki has erupted multiple times this year - no casualties have been reported so an eruption last November killed at least ten people and forced thousands to which means "man" in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1,703m named Perempuan, the Indonesian word for "woman".Additional reporting by Eliazar Ballo in Kupang.


The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Volunteers flock to help search efforts after Texas floods even as officials warn them away
Justin Rubio awoke in the wee hours to an alert on his phone, thunder, sirens and the thud of helicopter blades — the beginning of one of the largest rescue operations in Texas history. Rubio was determined to be a part of it. Even as authorities in Kerr County have repeatedly discouraged civilian volunteers, Rubio and dozens of others went out Monday to search for people still missing after flash flooding tore through the Texas Hill Country over the July Fourth weekend. The emotions wrapped up in the calamity that killed at least 100 people — and the urge to help find those still missing — at times butted up against officials' need for structure and safety as they search over 60 miles (100 kilometers) along the Guadalupe River. The river grew by the size of a two-story building in less than an hour on Friday. One survivor described a ' pitch-black wall of death." The flooding decimated shorelines, ripped trees from the ground, tossed and crushed a Ram truck, disappeared buildings and swept through a century-old summer camp packed with kids. Rubio, who picked through torn tree limbs Monday, said he couldn't help but pitch in. 'It's sad. It eats at your soul, it eats at your heart,' he said. 'I can't just sit at home thinking about what's going on out here.' The outpouring, volunteers say, is a Texas strain of solidarity, and officials have applauded the donations and volunteers in other areas. When it comes to search and rescue, however, fickle weather and a flash flood warning Sunday afternoon heightened authorities' fears that unorganized volunteers may end up adding to the missing or dead. On Sunday and Monday, officials began closing more search sites to volunteers, instead directing them to a local Salvation Army. 'We need focused and coordinated volunteers, not random people just showing up and doing what they do,' Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said. "We remain hopeful every foot, every mile, every bend of the river.' Some families have been frustrated by the pace, but officials are asking for patience with the breadth of the search area and methodical, no-stone-unturned approach. It's a sweeping operation with 19 different local and state agencies, drones, dogs, boats and helicopters. Officials have laid out a grid over the search area. Each segment can reach over a mile (2 kilometers) and takes between one and three hours to search, Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, said at a news conference Monday morning. Rice reiterated for volunteers to 'stay out of the way" so that first responders aren't waylaid ensuring that volunteers 'don't become victims themselves.' When volunteers were asked by official responders to leave sites in Kerrville, some moved to help search in the unincorporated community of Center Point on Monday, said Cord Shiflet, who'd rallied volunteers through a Facebook post. On Sunday, Shiflet had falsely claimed on Facebook that two girls had been rescued in a tree days after the flooding, but he said Monday that he had received bad information and apologized. The mistake caught the attention of U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, who represents the area and urged people to be careful about false news. 'It's not fair to families and it distracts law enforcement,' Roy posted on the social platform X. At Center Point on Monday, dozens of undeterred volunteers gathered, including Rubio and Bryan Dutton, in the afternoon heat. Dutton, a veteran who said he had friends at an RV camp affected by the floods, had been waiting to get off work to join the droves of residents coming out to assist and provide food. 'We do what we can do,' Dutton said. 'That's how Texas is.' ___


The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Texas floods latest: At least 104 dead as search for victims continues amid new weather warnings
Life threatening flash floods are forecast to remain a threat as storms continued across central Texas throughout Monday evening. It's the latest in a series of extreme weather events that have killed at least 104 people in the region since late last week. Dozens more people remain missing. Hundreds of local and state responders, dive teams, helicopters, drones, and volunteers on horseback are combing the area. A Christian summer camp said Monday that 27 girls and staff members had been killed in the disaster along the Guadalupe River. 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,' Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp, said in a statement on its website. The disaster dates back to the early hours of July 4, when heavy rainfall in western Kerr County caused the Guadalupe River to swell almost 24 feet in under an hour. Texas state lawmaker regrets voting against disaster response bill after floods Amid questions about whether emergency systems could've done more to warn residents of central Texas about last week's flood, one state lawmaker says he regrets voting against an emergency preparedness bill earlier this year. The legislation, House Bill 13, would have established a statewide plan to improve Texas's disaster alert systems, as well as provided grants to buy new communications equipment and installing infrastructure like radio towers. 'I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now,' Representative Wes Virdell told Texas Tribune. Texas officials feared for riverbank camps. A warning system was rejected Camp Mystic, the Christian girl's camp, reported that 27 campers and staffers had been killed in last week's flash flooding Josh Marcus8 July 2025 04:00 Drone collision grounds rescue helicopter City officials in Kerrville are warning residents not to use their drones until the search and rescue operations in the area are complete, after a collision with a drone in restricted airspace temporarily grounded an emergency helicopter flight. 'The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing, and a critical piece of response equipment is now out of service until further notice. This was entirely preventable,' the city said in a statement on Facebook. 'When you fly a drone in restricted areas, you're not just breaking the law -- you're putting first responders, emergency crews, and the public at serious risk,' the statement continued. Josh Marcus8 July 2025 03:00 WATCH: San Antonio holds candlelight vigil for victims of deadly Texas floods Josh Marcus8 July 2025 02:54 'She did all she could to save the lives of the girls in her cabin' A group of 11 are still missing from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp hit hard by the central Texas floods last week. That includes Katherine Ferruzzo, 19, a counselor at the camp and an incoming student at the University of Texas. 'Katherine has a fierce and loving spirit, and we have no doubt she did all she could to save the lives of the girls in her cabin,' her family told The New York Times. Texas camp confirms flood deaths of 27 girls and staff in 'unimaginable tragedy' Josh Marcus8 July 2025 02:01 Mayor in hard-hit city of Kerrville never got direct warning about floods Scrutiny is mounting over whether officials did enough to alert the public before deadly floods hit central Texas last week. Joe Herring, Jr., the mayor of hard-hit Kerrville, told CNN he never got a flood notification or an individual warning from government forecasters before the disaster struck. The first time he learned the extent of the threat was early Friday morning, when the city's emergency manager called him to say a park had been flooded, Herring told CNN. "It all happened upriver at the worst possible place. And I think everyone in Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County, wishes to God we had some way to warn them. To warn those people. I've lost two friends. We loved them and they're gone," he said. "You know they're gone. Everyone here, if we could've warned them, we would have done so. And we didn't even have a warning. We did not know." Josh Marcus8 July 2025 01:30 Photos: Texas state troopers assist in recovery effort The Texas Department of Public Safety was one of numerous agencies who sent personnel to central Texas to assist with recovery efforts after devastating floods late last week killed over 100 people. Josh Marcus8 July 2025 01:00 Netanyahu offers prayers for Texas ahead of Trump meeting in Washington Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among the world leaders who have offered prayers and condolences after the devastating floods in central Texas. 'My wife Sara and I and all of Israel are praying for the Great State of Texas,' the US ally wrote on X. 'Israel knows disaster—we've lived through war, fire, and flood. Dear friends, we stand with you!' Netanyahu is slated to dine with President Trump in Washington on Monday. Bel Trew had this preview of what's at stake in the meeting. A glimmer of hope in Gaza? Inside the fragile push for an Israel ceasefire deal After months of deadlock, talks resume this week over Trump's 60-day ceasefire proposal – with Netanyahu in Washington, Bel Trew examines whether this time is any different Josh Marcus8 July 2025 00:40 Rescue teams from Florida, Pennsylvania, Mexico to assist in Texas flood recovery Rescue teams from far and wide are assisting Texas in the aftermath of deadly flooding late last week. Crews from Florida, Pennsylvania, and even Mexico have been sent to join in the response effort. Josh Marcus8 July 2025 00:20 Series of obstacles may have stopped Texas weather warnings from reaching population As first responders work to rescue the living and recover the dead from last week's flooding in central Texas, officials and experts are scrutinizing whether more could've been done to warn the public about the Friday floods, potentially averting some of the more than 100 deaths that followed. A review from NBC Dallas-Fort Worth found that National Weather Service alerts went out about the coming floods in Kerr County on Thursday, about 12 hours before the floods actually hit. 'The National Weather Service office did everything they should do from everything I can tell,' Jeff Masters, a former hurricane scientist with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, told USA Today. Nonetheless, the county lacks weather sirens, and making matters worse, a lack of cell phone coverage and weather radios in the area may have further prevented such warnings from reaching residents. What's more, numerous summer camps are in the area, some of which don't allow children to carry cell phones. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on Monday that flood-warning sirens could've saved lives in communities near the swollen Guadalupe River, and promised the state will 'step up' and help pay for such infrastructure to be in place by next summer. Texas officials feared for riverbank camps. A warning system was rejected Josh Marcus8 July 2025 00:00 PHOTOS: Rescues and repairs continue after Texas floods Josh Marcus