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Drone Captures Scope Of Texas Flooding As Crews Search For Survivors, Including A Mother, Two Kids [Video]

By Shelley Hazen
Published on: 00:34 PST, May 27, 2015

A drone video has captured from the air a tremendous scene of destruction in Houston, Texas, inundated this week by record flooding. It’s a site that doesn’t reveal hundreds of tragic stories of families ripped apart, lost loved ones, and destroyed homes.

Laura McComb and her two children, Andrew, 6, and Leighton, 4, are among those missing, the Wall Street Journal reported. She, her husband Jonathan, and a group of friends had planned for a fun Memorial Day weekend at a cabin on the Blanco River in Wimberley, Texas – three hours east of Houston.

Little did they know, historic flooding was about to devastate Texas.

The rain started Saturday night and didn’t let up. Jonathan father recounted his son’s experience: The water quickly rose to the bottom of the house, and then something large smashed into its stilts to send the cabin coursing downstream. The family clung to each other, and Laura called her sister, McComb said.

“She told her sister, ‘I don’t know what is going to happen. We’re floating down the river. I love you, and tell mom and dad I love them.'”

A mile downriver, the cabin slammed into a bridge and fell apart, and the McComb family and their friends were strewn into the water. Jonathan was separated from Laura and his kids, jostled in the flood waters until he finally surfaced, crawled to shore, and got help.

Now, Jonathan is in the hospital with a collapsed lung, and a broken rib and sternum. Laura and his children haven’t been found; neither have their friends.

“We are still very optimistic that some miracle may happen. But the more the clock ticks, the chances of finding them are diminishing.”

The flooding in Texas has been devastating.

As of Wednesday morning, 18 people were counted as dead in Texas and Oklahoma, with 13 still unaccounted for, CNN reported. In Houston, flooding claimed five lives, with two missing. Outside Houston, the flooding has claimed three people and 11 missing near the capital, Austin. Four other Texas counties count one dead each, and six in Oklahoma.

Authorities hope those swallowed by the flooding across Texas will be rescued. In Houston, residents may have been trapped in the cars that now litter the city; a frantic search to find all missing – aged 4 to 81 – continues, CBS News added.

Flooding in Houston has continued after six hours of endless rain – up to 11 inches – in the past day. And there may not be relief – up to two inches is expected between Wednesday and Sunday; Dallas could get up to four and Oklahoma up to six.

“The grounds were completely saturated, and there’s really been no place for the water to go,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker said.

A couple of drone enthusiasts have captured the scope of this flooding from the air since the most recent rainfall. Chase Bielamowicz and Bryan Rumbaugh both captured Houston’s Buffalo Bayou River, which has spilled over its banks.

“We’re seeing everything else you guys are doing from the chopper, up high you can see down. We’re in the trees, at the bridges. It’s just a first-person view really no one else can see,” said Rumbaugh.

[Photo Courtesy YouTube Screengrab]

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