Two sisters killed in the devastating Texas Hill Country floods were found with “their hands locked together,” grieving family members said as they continue to search for the girls’ missing grandparents.
Blair and Brooke Harber, ages 13 and 11, died while on a family trip in Casa Bonita, a gated community in the town of Hunt that was struck by the devastating deluge early Friday.
The rushing water woke up the girls’ father, RJ Harber, around 3:30 a.m., his sister Jennifer told KLOU, and the rain was pounding so hard outside that it was nearly impossible to hear the water pouring through their cabin door.
Around the same time, Brooke texted RJ and her maternal grandparents “I love you,” Jennifer wrote on a GoFundMe for the family.
RJ and his wife Annie shattered a window and clambered outside in a desperate bid to reach their daughters, who were staying in a separate cabin.
But the raging waters prevented them from reaching the other home. In a last-ditch effort, Annie and RJ hurried to another neighbor’s house and woke the family up to borrow their kayak and paddle through the flood.
The waters, however, were too rough, and the parents wound up being rescued alongside five surviving neighbors, Jennifer wrote.
When the sisters were found 12 hours later and 15 miles away, “their hands were locked together,” Jennifer told KLOU.
Blair and Brooke attended St. Rita’s Catholic School in Dallas, Texas where their mother Annie Harber works as an instructional specialist.
The siblings were “believers,” Jennifer said, and had taken their rosary beads with them on the trip.
“[Blair] was a gifted student and had a generous kind heart. [Brooke] was like a light in any room, people gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment,” RJ told CNN.
Their grandparents, Mike and Charlene Harber, are still unaccounted for.
The Harber family had been staying in two separate cabins. Mike and Charlene’s neighbors, who were out of town, offered up their home for them to stay in with the girls since it was more spacious than the couple’s one-bedroom home.
At least 80 people have died in the catastrophic flood and more than 40 are still missing. Evacuation orders are still in place as the Hill Country area anticipates more rain.
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