Two brothers return home safely to Houston after flash floods force evacuation at Camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas.
HOUSTON — Two brothers who went camping this week are grateful to be back home in Houston after intense flash flooding forced emergency evacuations and left campers scrambling for shelter.
Brock and Braeden Davis had just arrived at Camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas, earlier this week when torrential rain and rising floodwaters hit overnight. Braden said he was jolted awake around 4 a.m. to the sound of screaming outside.
“I hear screaming from outside,” Braeden recalled. “Later on, I find out someone’s cabin flooded and they were outside in the middle of the rain.”
Within moments, water had begun rising inside their own cabin. The boys scrambled to higher ground, climbing onto top bunks to stay dry, but even those weren’t safe for long.
“We jumped up to another bed, a top bunk and like our beds started tipping over, and we got to the top really quick and then, one of the walls fell down,” Brock said.
With no phones or electronics, the campers had no way to contact their families. Counselors rushed from building to building, moving children into safer areas as water levels climbed and personal belongings floated away.
“They lost Crocs and shoes and everything, trunks were floating everywhere, so they came into our cabin and someone told me that when they were walking around campgrounds, they saw Cabin 5 the cabin right next to Brock’s the wall had fallen over, and my door like flooded away,” Braeden said.
The boys spent about 13 hours waiting for help and were eventually relocated to a safe shelter on the property, where camp leaders gave them snacks and kept spirits up until rescue crews, including the Coast Guard, could arrive.
Once they returned to Houston, their parents shared just how deadly the floods had been across the region and how fortunate they were to be home safely.