Hunt, Texas – Like others who were in homes or holidays during the weekend on July 4 on Guadalobi Texas RiverChristian Phil, 25, was awake because of the rift of thunder.
It was three in the morning, just a few hours since an elephant went to sleep alone at his grandmother’s house on the river in Hunt, Texas. The rest of his family remained in another house. Then came more noise-this time it looks like a storm-and came out of the bed.
Phil said: “I wake up and swing my feet on the side of the bed and I can feel water,” Phil said.
The river water that was usually monitored by the historical stone courtyard that his grandfather now built over ankle – rose quickly.
He was learning soon that he was dragging the trees and debris that criticized the house, torn the yard, and was almost surrounded by the interior and finally forced it to swim through a window and clinging to a meter box to survive.
In what one of them said, an area is considered the jewel of Texas, where the river is known as a place to play and relax, Societies reeling from deadly floods This has claimed the lives of dozens of people, including 15 children.
There were sudden flood warnings, but the residents said this is not unusual in the region, which, like most of the state, was in drought over the years.
So, like many others, he fell to sleep, some of them cautious about the storm, but expecting to wake up barbecue parties, the smell of wet trees and the familiar river who hunt them, wandered and retreated for years.
Instead, for the fall, early morning hours from July 4 became a battle for survival.
As the water rises quickly, he walked from the bedroom to the living room, using a manual lamp on his phone. He turned to see the water flowing into the broken courtyard. Try the kitchen door, hoping to reach his truck.
“I could not leave via the kitchen door because as soon as it was opened, all this water started in immersion and it was a waist at this stage, perhaps after about five minutes of waking up,” said Phil, who is 6 feet long.
He returned to the bedroom and tried to climb to the air ranking he was sleeping on, but he could not. A door on another side of the house will not open. He said he tried to call the number 911, but he was disconnected three times. In one call, he said that the sender asked him to call again when the water was at the chin level.
He said: “I had to go under water and swim through the broken window.”
Once outside, try to climb to the surface, but the bottom he caught to capture. Instead, it fell into a meter box installed on the house, and the upper part is about 7 feet above the ground. I stood on a narrow top for several hours, his hands near the electric wires, until the water fell.
Tree, shed, phone pole and balcony
Matt Miger, 39, and Erin Burgis, was at home in the Bumble Bee sub -section, across the street of the river. The house, which bought Burgis five years ago, is one of the closest to the river, the peaceful site of the morning paths, until July 4.
They also woke up by thunder. With their dog, Stella, they went out to see the rain, which was heavy, but not worrying. They returned to bed and examined Facebook for weather warnings, but they did not find anything.
Suddenly I looked at him and said, “What is this voice? “He seems to be raining at home.” Burgis said, “We looked down and the water was coming across the walls.”
It was around 4:30 am by 5:15 am, Burgis and her 19 -year -old son cling to a large tree in the front yard, holding an hour. The water rose to the high temperature of the bogis to keep its head over it. They tried to reach the roof, but they were washed away towards the tree instead.
Meagher grabbed Stella and was fighting the river stream while he was preparing against a shed on the back of his little truck.
But the truck began to move and Meagher was almost installed against it.
“So I left and then went to this phone there,” he said, referring to several feet columns on the road. He barely left him before water collided with the SUV in the same pole. His doctor shouted that the car was on his way.
He said: “A car started rolling towards me, so I left again and I was about to crush twice.”
The current carried it to the top of the mass and pushed it on the wooden balcony handrails of a neighbor who was looking through a window with his lamp. His neighbor and Sentlla pulled him – still in his arms – to safety.
“I didn’t think I would have seen it again,” said Burgis. “I was a whistle and I was screaming, then I no longer hear it.”
Burgis said she clung to a tree as she was praying for her neighborhood, and for his water, “descending and stopping rushing.”
Meagher and Burges said that almost everything in their home was destroyed. They appreciate that the water has reached 8 feet. The mud and sewage also occupied the 2004 infiniti M37 – a Meagher car, which built hot bars, allocated it with a $ 7,000 and $ 5,000 engine.
They grabbed the switches and lights – and so on – a little – before the water penetrated their door.
They didn’t know what, if there is anything, it could be saved. But they did not reunite them at a neighbor’s house later that day with an unexpected survivor.
“When the water retreated … we went back and found our cat [Kiki]”Our cat was floating on my bed,” Borges said.
