In the early hours of what should have been a joyful summer morning, a peaceful riverside getaway in Texas turned into an unimaginable nightmare.
Torrential rain hammered the Texas Hill Country, catching families off guard and unleashing powerful flash floods that would claim dozens of lives and devastate an entire region.
The Guadalupe River, long a favorite retreat for campers and vacationers, rose rapidly—26 feet in under an hour—swallowing cabins, trees, and vehicles in its path.
Families who had gone to sleep under calm skies woke to chaos, many forced to flee through windows or cling to floating debris for survival.
Among those enjoying the holiday weekend were RJ and Annie Harber, along with their daughters, Blair, 13, and Brooke, 11, and grandparents Mike and Charlene Harber.
The family had rented separate cabins along the river near Hunt, Texas, expecting a relaxing reunion. But what unfolded would become one of the most heart-wrenching tragedies of the floods.
“I shined a flashlight out there, and I could see it was white water,” RJ told The Wall Street Journal. “There were cars floating at me and trees floating at me. I knew if I took even one stroke further, it was gonna be a death sentence.”
RJ and Annie managed to escape their own flooding cabin by jumping out of a window. RJ grabbed a kayak, hoping to reach the girls’ cabin.
But the current was too strong. Pushed into a post midstream, he was forced to retreat as the waters grew more violent.
From the distance, he could see an entire building had broken loose and smashed into the cabin where his daughters were staying.
When the couple reached higher ground, they checked their phones and saw a message from their daughters, sent at 3:30 a.m. It read simply: “I love you.”
The same message had also been sent to the girls’ grandfather in Michigan.
It was the last anyone would hear from Blair and Brooke Harber.
Later that day, as floodwaters receded, search teams made a devastating discovery in Kerrville, about 15 miles downstream. The sisters’ bodies were found. They were holding hands. Each had a rosary in her grip.
“When they were found, their hands were locked together,” a family member shared in a crowdfunding campaign. “They had their rosaries with them.”
The grandparents who were with them, Mike and Charlene Harber, remain missing as of the latest search updates.
Both girls were students at St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas, where Blair was set to enter eighth grade and Brooke the sixth. Their mother, Annie, is a teacher at the same school. Their community has been left shattered by the loss, remembering the girls as bright, kind, and deeply faithful.
Father Joshua Whitfield, the family’s priest, told KDFW:
“Even if we may never fully understand why such tragedies happen, we are called to respond with love, compassion, and prayer. We will honor Blair and Brooke’s lives, the light they shared, and the joy they brought to everyone who knew them.”
The tragedy unfolded at Camp Mystic and surrounding areas, where over 100 people died during the July 4 holiday weekend. More than 25 individuals remain missing, and recovery efforts are ongoing.
Communities along the Guadalupe River are struggling to process the scale of the disaster, as images of shattered cabins and wreckage continue to emerge.
A GoFundMe account established in the girls’ honor has raised more than $197,000 in support of the grieving family.
While the region begins the painful process of recovery, the Harber family’s heartbreak has struck a national chord. What started as a routine family vacation turned into a symbol of the fragility of life and the strength of love between two sisters whose final act was to hold on to each other—in prayer, in faith, and in farewell.
Their message was brief, but unforgettable.
“I love you.”
