Two young sisters who died in the catastrophic Texas flooding were found holding hands, according to relatives.
Blair and Brooke Harber, ages 13 and 11, were vacationing with their family in the Casa Bonita cabin community in Hunt, Texas, when devastating flash floods tore through the area in the early morning hours of July 4.
“They were believers and one of their favorite classes was religion,” Jennifer Harber, the girls’ paternal aunt, wrote in a detailed statement on GoFundMe. “Blair and I had a conversation about God and heaven two weeks earlier. They had their rosaries with them.”
Their bodies were recovered on July 5, about 15 miles downstream. When rescuers reached them, “their hands were locked together,” Jennifer Harber said.
Harber said Blair and Brooke had been staying in a cabin with their paternal grandparents, Mike and Charlene. The girls’ mother and father, Annie and RJ, were lodged farther up the hill, away from the river.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, RJ said that at 3:30 a.m, — around the same time he was jolted awake by thunder and rain — both Brooke and Blair sent identical texts to him and Annie that read simply: “I love you.” Their maternal grandfather received the same message, along with a photo of the girls.
RJ tried desperately to reach his parents and daughters. He broke a window and fled the house with his wife, Annie, alerting nearby neighbors along the way. By then, the water was raising a foot a minute. It was, his sister Jennifer Harber said, “a miracle” they made it out alive.
Harber described the terrifying scene in the GoFundMe: The night was pitch black with pounding rain, lightning, thunder and emergency alerts blaring. RJ needed to make it only five homes down, but the floodwaters turned violent, with whitecaps cresting in the dark. Even with a kayak, Jennifer said, he knew he’d be swept away if he continued. He turned back, instead, to help Annie and a group of neighbors to safety.
Of the 20 homes in the neighborhood, Jennifer Harber said, only a handful remain standing.
The Harbers are still searching for Mike and Charlene, who remain missing.
“We are beyond devastated and so heartbroken. Prayers are much appreciated and what we needed at this time,” she wrote. “Please help us find my parents so we can have closure and bring them home.”
The sisters were both students at St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas.
Blair, a rising eighth grader, was remembered as a kind-hearted leader, an honors student, multi-sport athlete and cheerleader who had been looking forward to auditioning for the lead in the play. Brooke, entering sixth grade, was known for her infectious energy, athletic talent and a warm personality that “never met a stranger,” the school said in a statement.
“Even in their last moments, they held tightly to each other,” the school said, “a powerful symbol of their bond and their trust in God.”
