Jonathan McComb was the only family to survive a similar flood in 2015. Since then, he has found searches for others after a fatal natural disaster.
Time-lapse footage shows fatal rising floods in central Texas
Time-lapse footage of the Llano River shows how rapidly fatal floods have occurred in central Texas.
- Jonathan McComb lost his wife and child in 2015 in Winbury, Texas, 80 miles east of Kerrville.
- Since then, he has felt he has been called to take part in search and rescue operations in Texas.
- He is currently in Kerrville, helping to explore the victims of the July 4th flood.
- As of July 7, at least 90 people had died from floods in central Texas.
KERVILLE, Texas – For the past four days, Jonathan McComb has climbed an inflatable raft or hiked along flooded scalded banks on the Guadalupe River, plunging into brambles and uprooted trees to search for victims.
He works from sunrise to sunset. It’s merciless, boring and physically demanding. And sometimes my soul is insane when searching and rescue turn into recovery.
Macomb is one of hundreds of volunteers who have come down to Kerr County in the wake of the fatal Independence Day flood here to help search for the victims.
However, this task has extra weight for Macomb. He was the only family to survive a similar flood in Wimberley, Texas, 80 miles east of Kerrville in 2015. These floods destroyed around 400 homes and killed 13 people, including Macomb’s wife and two children. They were wiped out of his grasp as the house they were in was pushed along the Slanco River and broke into a bridge.
On the morning of July 7, 45-year-old Macomb met with about 20 members of Texar, a central Texas-based search and rescue volunteer group. At the banks in Guadalupe, they are no longer destructive and still brown and swollen, but members discussed the flow of the river and reminded each other to be aware of fallen branches and trees. As of that morning, at least 10 children had attended a nearby Christian camp for the girl.
Many of the volunteers had loaned their search and rescue expertise to the attacked communities. For Macomb, it was the fulfillment of an agreement that hit God when he returned to life on the raging swing river ten years ago.
“This will be a little more hit at home,” McComb said in an interview with USA Today. “I can see the wounds and pain in my family. I know what they are going through, what they are feeling, what they are trying to feel.”
“The size of this is in its own category.”
Volunteers have flowed into Kerr County in the wake of the flood, with some pulling skiffs into the trailer with trailers behind trucks and canoes tied to the roof of SUVs. Authorities asked volunteers to connect with law enforcement before they could help.
Texsar alone has worked on 50 volunteers and six Swift Water Rescue Boats, said Shannon Smith. Over the years, Texal’s team has supported hundreds of missions, from searching and rescue after Hurricane Harvey in southeastern Texas to rescue lost hikers on Mount Guadalupe in West Texas.
But few people compared it to the disaster, Smith said.
“The size of this is in its own category,” she said.
At least 90 people have died in floods across Texas since July 4th, officials said. The worst flooding has occurred here in Kerr County, but deaths have also been recorded in Travis, Burnett, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties.
The death toll included at least 27 children and counselors from the beloved girl’s summer camp, the camp said in a statement as a desperate search of people still missing on the fourth day.
“Our hearts are broken with our family who are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” Camp Mystic, a private Christian camp, said in a July 7th website statement. “We pray constantly for them.”
When there were about 700 children in the camp, unrelenting rain spiked over 26 feet within an hour, Texas Lt. Colonel Dan Patrick said. Photos taken at the scene show the building where several of the children slept in windows and blown-out walls. Among the mud-covered pieces were pink blankets and stuffed animals.
“I’ll talk about you and help others.”
The images evoked painful memories of Macomb.
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2015, his wife, Laura, son Andrew, 6 and 4-year-old Layton, 4, spent a holiday at a riverside home in Wimberley with another family when the flood collided, pushing the house out of the foundation and rushing the Slanco River.
The house bumped into a bridge and began to fall apart, sending members of the family down the raging river. Macomb saw his family being wiped out by an angry stream as he slid out of his grip, he said.
He resigned as well and slid under the waves. But something slammed his head, shocking him. He called to God.
“I said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll get out of here and I’ll talk about you and help others,” recalled McComb.
On the downriver about 11 miles, Macomb finally climbed, narrowed the steep cliff and walked safely. He was one of nine people at home that night. Layton’s body never recovered, he said.
While recovering at the hospital, he learns that Texar volunteers are looking for his family. He vowed to join the group as soon as possible. Later that year he did.
McComb supported six missions with groups that include other weather events and helped them find missing people. He has since remarried and now has a five-year-old daughter, Scarlett. He held her slightly tighter before heading to Kerr County.
He arrived in Carville on the night of July 4th. Guadalupe still swayed and joined the search and rescue team in a Zodiac Raft.
He said it was a struggle to keep his focus on the search, keeping familiar feelings free of distractions.
“It’s a tug of war,” McComb said. “I’m here. But we know that we couldn’t recover our daughter ten years ago and we know what it would be like. I want to do what I can.”
He climbed up the pickup truck with his team and rode on trees entwined with uprooted trees and entwined fragments.
There were more victims to find.
How to volunteer
At a press conference, Carville City Manager Dalton Rice asked volunteers to contact Carville, the Salvation Army, at 830-465-4797, directly at 855 Hays St. in Carville. He also asked private drone operators not to stop flying in disaster areas.
Where to donate
A variety of aid groups, nonprofits and other organizations have accepted donations to support victims and support recovery efforts.
The Texas Hill Country Community Foundation has launched the Carr County Flood Relief Fund. It provides assistance to vetted organizations in Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Centrepoint and other local areas. The crowdfunding website GoFundMe has the latest page of verified fundraisers related to flood victims and their families.
Other organizations accepting donations include the World Central Kitchen and the Salvation Army. It distributes supplies and has a mobile kitchen installed in disaster areas.
Reach Jervis with: rjervis@usatoday.comor follow him with x: @mrrjervis.
