() A Texas resident has described his and his family’s experience escaping the rising floodwaters in central Texas as “horrifying.”
“I think we’re experiencing a little PTSD, it was really rough,” Barry Adelman said. “The water came so fast.”
Fast-moving floodwaters hit the area over the Fourth of July weekend after heavy rain raised the Guadalupe River by 29 inches.
Adelman said he and his family were alerted of the floods by a family friend. The entire first floor of his home was already submerged in water by the time they were warned. He said by the time his family was aware of what was going on, water rose to the second floor of the home.
Adelman and his wife, grandmother, his daughter, grandson and other family members were able to make it to the attic of the house. He said he watched from the attic as water then began to rise to another floor of the house. He was able to communicate with his sister, who he asked to call everyone she could and pray.
He added when he and other family members went to tie up Christmas lights to the chimney in case they had to escape from the attic, he described what happened next as a miracle.
“After I called my sister, the water got to the top steps in the attic, and my cousin said ‘it stopped’,” Adelman said. “It then went down six inches, 20 minutes later it went down three feet.”
Adelman said by the time the water got back down to the first level, they all were able to go outside on the side of their home where they were rescued by the National Guard.
“I thank God, I thank our faith, the National Guard for getting in there and getting the window of opportunity to get us out of there,” Adelman said. “They were amazing.”
As of Monday, 95 people were reported dead from the floods, and many more are still missing. Kerrville was one of the hardest-hit cities and remains under a flood watch until 7 p.m. CDT Monday.
