News & Current Events
Texas Dad Dies Holding His Children As Floodwaters Sweep Them Away
According to a witness, a father lost his life in the Texas floodwaters while ‘hanging onto his babies’ as they were washed away.
Last Friday, July 4, as families celebrated Independence Day, deadly flash floods swept through central Texas and Kerr County.
The Guadalupe River swelled to a perilous 26-foot level in about 45 minutes, while a month’s worth of rain dropped in a handful of hours.
Complete mobile homes, vehicles, and even cabins that many people were staying in while on holiday break were washed away by the floods.
As search and rescue operations entered their fifth day for the dozens still missing, it was established that the disaster killed at least 105 people, including 28 children.
From distraught parents to onlookers who witnessed individuals being carried away, tragic stories are now coming out of the mourning community.
According to PEOPLE, the owner of the RV park where John Burgess and his family were vacationing has disclosed that one of these victims, John Burgess, was ‘holding fast’ to his babies when he was swept away and killed by the floods.
When the floods happened, the father, his wife, Julia Anderson Burgess, and their two boys were staying in Texas Hill County.
The family travelled from Liberty, Texas, to the camp, according to KWTX, to pick up their oldest daughter from a different camp that was unaffected by the floodwaters.
The Blue Oak RV Park’s owner, Lorena Guillen, remembered the man clinging to a tree and frantically holding his two youngsters.
“My husband was in the water trying to ask them, ‘Please throw me your baby!’ The man was holding tight to his babies, and he just got swept away,” she said to the New York Post.
Guillen said the Burgess’, like many families, had come for the Fourth of July celebrations, adding, “The kids were so excited to be here.”
She also recalled the terrifying moments they were carried away in the utter darkness and disclosed that all 28 of the RVs parked in the site were destroyed.
“We heard people screaming throughout the night,” she continued. “The cabins from the RV park next door came floating, and they were getting smashed against the trees.”
”‘Help me! Help me!’ — that was the main thing. You heard a lot of screaming, it was just too much,” Guillen added.
Unfortunately, according to WLUC, the bodies of John, a Waco-area alumnus of China Spring High School, and his wife, a former instructor at Belton’s Lakewood Elementary, have now been found.
Their two sons, though, are still unaccounted for.
“The neighbors around here, we’ve all been praying and everything, and it’s just a sad, sad situation. I just can’t hardly believe it,” a neighbor, Winnie Taylor, told the outlet.
As of this writing, a fundraising to repair the now-demolished Blue Oak RV Park has raised $1,599 in total.
Donations can be made to the GoFundMe site.
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