Hallie Thompson’s home on the Guadalupe River in Hunt has been in her family for three generations, not quite as long as her female relatives have been attending nearby Camp Mystic.
On Thursday night, her husband, her brother and two of her children, ages 2 and 7, along with their dog, were anticipating the holiday and the arrival of more family, she said. Brother Phillip had been sleeping downstairs but was up and shouting the names of loved ones upstairs.
Awakened, the relatives looked downstairs from an interior balcony to see Philip chest-deep in rising water, Thompson said. Once they figured the only response was flight, they rushed to a window, only to realize that a tree, multiple two-by-four planks and other debris were puncturing a wall and making it impossible to escape, she said.
“The home was ripped in half,” Thompson said. “The front of it is gone.”
The family moved to another side of the home as water rose to a first-level rooftop, she said. It wasn’t clear how they would avoid the raging Guadalupe, but the water started to drop almost as fast as it rose, she said. Thompson noticed the headlights of a vehicle on higher ground nearby, she said. It belonged to neighbors, and they were waiting.
Water got low enough for the whole household to get out and into the safety of their neighbors’ vehicle, Thompson said.
“There were no stairs anymore, and so one by one … we were evacuated to their home, safely across, across the road and up the hill,” she said.
One of Thompson’s daughters, 10-year-old Mamie, was at Camp Mystic. Her 10-year-old niece was also in the cabin, and as it flooded, her daughter awoke and was soon being pulled through a window by three camp counselors, she said.
A vehicle that came to the rescue was washed away, Thompson said, as the children watched and clung to trees and a utility pole. The girls climbed the adjacent mountain, known at the camp as Sky High, barefoot and in pajamas, she said, making it to safety and eventually trekking to Camp Mystic’s nearby location on higher ground.
“I’m so grateful,” Thompson said. “How do you thank someone for your life, for your family’s life? I hope they know. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We’re here because they kept watch and put their own lives at risk to make sure my family was safe.”