Loud cracks of thunder and driving rain woke up RJ Harber and his wife, Annie, early on July 4 as they vacationed in a cabin along the Guadalupe River.
But it should have been a warning siren that alerted them to the catastrophic Hill Country flood. A public siren should have roused the Dallas couple long before water began pouring into their cabin. Long before the flood claimed the lives of their two daughters and Harber’s parents, who were in a nearby cabin.
A new state law passed in the wake of the disaster requires flood warning sirens to be installed in counties prone to flooding and with histories of related deaths or with dense residential or recreational use. Senate Bill 3, authored by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, also creates a grant program to help cities and counties defray the costs of installation and maintenance. The sirens must be installed by next summer.
For Harber, that is too late.
By the time the loud storm awakened him and his wife at about 3:30 a.m., water already covered the floor of their cabin and was rising fast. They barely escaped through a window and swam to a safe spot.
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After quickly alerting people in two other nearby cabins, Harber grabbed a kayak and paddled against what was now a raging, whitewater current toward his daughters’ cabin. Debris came at him in the dark; he couldn’t make it there.
Of the 20 cabins in that Casa Bonita community, only six remained. One of those swept away was the one containing Blair, 13, and Brooke, 11, and their grandparents, Mike Harber, 76, and Charlene Harber, 74.
Harber said that neither he nor his wife received any weather alerts on their phones that terrible morning, adding that cellphone coverage in that area was spotty. He said sirens, like the ones that are tested once a month near his northwest Dallas home, would have saved his daughters.
“I should have had some kind of warning so I could get to my girls, or my girls would have come to me if they heard a siren,” Harber said.
Blair and Brooke Harber, pictured celebrating Christmas last year.
Courtesy of RJ Harber
Reminders of the girls are everywhere throughout the couple’s home, including in a dish of pink and yellow candies in the living room. Those were Blair and Brooke’s favorite colors.
Blair was the “model 13-year-old,” Harber said. An altar server at St. Rita Catholic Church, Blair loved animals and helping her father cook. A rising 8th grader, she was an exceptional student and excelled in lacrosse, basketball, volleyball and cheerleading. Blair was kind, respectful, loving and full of faith, Harber said.
Set to begin 6th grade, Brooke was “pure energy and joy,” her father said. Bringing people together and making them laugh was her greatest gift. She could run for hours without tiring and displayed that energy while playing lacrosse, soccer, basketball, softball and volleyball. It seemed there wasn’t a sport Brooke didn’t like.
After the flood, the girls were found holding hands.
Harber said he and Annie have leaned heavily on their faith as they struggle every day to go on without their only children. Yet he doesn’t think of them as gone, but in heaven where they are safe and encouraging him.
“I’ve come to understand that my relationship with the girls didn’t stop on the Fourth of July,” Harber said. “It’s expanding and evolving.”
The death toll is difficult to square with this age of warp-speed technological advancement and hyperconnectivity. The Fourth of July floods claimed the lives of more than 135 people, including locals and visitors from other parts of Texas and from out of state. The water swept away RVs and knocked houses off their foundations.
Among the victims: An Austin toddler ripped from his mother’s arms. College students from Beaumont sharing a cabin. A soccer coach and a teacher from Kerrville and their two children. A Kingwood family of three on their way to the rodeo. A Lewisville couple in their camper along the Guadalupe River, and another couple who had made the RV park their long-term home. A young father from Ingram who punched through a window to save his wife and kids. The list goes on and on.
The disaster finally moved Texas officials to do what they should have done a long time ago: mandate the installation of outdoor warning sirens along flood-prone areas. If only it hadn’t taken heartbreak of this magnitude to make it happen.
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