{"id":30252,"date":"2025-07-08T00:30:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T00:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=30252"},"modified":"2025-07-08T00:30:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T00:30:46","slug":"sisters-who-died-in-texas-floods-were-found-holding-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=30252","title":{"rendered":"Sisters Who Died In Texas Floods Were Found Holding Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cEven in their last moments, they held tightly to each other.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Two young sisters who died in the\u00a0catastrophic Texas flooding<\/a>\u00a0were found holding hands, according to relatives.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey were believers and one of their favorite classes was religion,\u201d Jennifer Harber, the girls\u2019 paternal aunt, wrote in a detailed statement on GoFundMe. \u201cBlair and I had a conversation about God and heaven two weeks earlier. They had their rosaries with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their bodies were recovered on July 5, about 15 miles downstream. When rescuers reached them, “their hands were locked together,” Jennifer Harber said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In an interview with\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, RJ said that at 3:30 a.m, \u2014 around the same time he was jolted awake by thunder and rain \u2014 both Brooke and Blair sent identical texts to him and Annie that read simply: \u201cI love you.\u201d Their maternal grandfather received the same message, along with a photo of the girls.<\/p>\n

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, \u201ca miracle\u201d they made it out alive.<\/p>\n

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\u2019d be swept away if he continued. He turned back, instead, to help Annie and a group of neighbors to safety.<\/p>\n

Of the 20 homes in the neighborhood, Jennifer Harber said, only a handful remain standing.<\/p>\n

The Harbers are still searching for Mike and Charlene, who remain missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are beyond devastated and so heartbroken. Prayers are much appreciated and what we needed at this time,\u201d she wrote. \u201cPlease help us find my parents so we can have closure and bring them home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sisters were both students at St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\"Harber<\/picture>
Brooke and Blair Harber with their parents and grandparents.<\/span>GoFundMe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u201cnever met a stranger,” the school said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in their last moments, they held tightly to each other,\u201d the\u00a0school said,<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca powerful symbol of their bond and their trust in God.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cEven in their last moments, they held tightly to each other.\u201d Two young sisters who died in the\u00a0catastrophic Texas flooding\u00a0were found holding hands, according to relatives. Blair and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30254,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30252\/revisions\/30254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}