Boys describe horror of climbing on top bunks to escape Texas floods — as mom praises hero counselors
Brock and Braeden Davis had only just arrived at Camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas earlier this week when it was hit by torrential rain and rising floodwaters on Thursday night.
Braeden was woken sharply to the sound of screaming outside at around 4 a.m. Friday.
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'I hear screaming from outside. Later on, I find out someone's cabin flooded and they were outside in the middle of the rain,' Braeden told KHOU.
4 Brock (L) and Braeden Davis survived the Texas flooding.
KHOU
The water flooded their cabin, forcing the two boys to scramble to higher ground.
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'We jumped up to another bed, a top bunk and like our beds started tipping over, and we got to the top really quick and then, one of the walls fell down,' Brock said.
Without their phones or any access to the outside world, the two boys couldn't contact their families.
4 So far, more than 70 people are confirmed to have died in flash flooding in the Lone Star State.
AP
As camp counselors rushed between the cabins, they moved children into safer areas as the water levels continued to rise.
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'They lost Crocs and shoes and everything, trunks were floating everywhere, so they came into our cabin and someone told me that when they were walking around campgrounds, they saw Cabin 5 the cabin right next to Brock's the wall had fallen over, and my door like flooded away,' Braeden said.
The two boys spent 13 hours waiting for help before they were eventually relocated to a safe shelter on the property by camp leaders.
4 The two brothers woke up to find their cabin flooded.
KHOU
There, they were given snacks until rescue crews including the Coast Guard arrived.
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The pair have now been reunited with their family in Houston, where their parents praised the hero counselors who saved their lives.
Once their got home, their parents revealed how lucky they had been to survive the flooding, which so far is confirmed to have killed more than 70 people.
Two other brothers also had a miraculous escape from the flooding at Camp La Junta, just off State Highway 39.
Piers and Ruffin Boyett had to swim to safety after floodwaters swept through the camp, they described in an interview with KSAT.
4 Emergency crews are still urgently hunting for missing people.
AP
Ruffin was the first to wake up, before another camper woke up their counselor.
'Oh my God, we're floating,' Ruffin recalls saying, before the children made a snap decision that saved their lives.
'The flood started getting bigger. We have bunk beds in our cabin, and it was going to the top bunk. We had one choice, and we had to swim out of our cabins,' Piers said.
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All of the campers swam to safety and reached a cabin on higher ground where they were put on a bus and driven away from the Guadalupe River.
'No one died. We are thankful for that,' Ruffin said.
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