A former Nueces County Commissioner has confirmed that his two grandchildren and daughter-in-law are missing after being swept-away in flood waters near Wimberly, Texas. His son was seriously hurt when the home his family was staying in was overtaken by the flood.
Former County Commissioner Joe McComb told 3 Kiii TV News South Texas that he and his wife received the bad news when they were in Maui, Hawaii, celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary.
McComb and his wife are coming back to Texas to be with their son.
According to the news report, their son Jonathan is in a hospital in San Antonio recovering from a broken sternum, broken rib, and a collapsed lung.
The family was staying at a house on the Blanco River in Wimberly when the rushing water took the house off of its foundation. They were staying with other couples in the home at the time.
Wimberly is about 25 miles southwest of Austin, and 36 miles northeast of San Antonio.
Jonathan was able to get to a river bank and was located by rescuers. His wife, and his two children, 6-year-old Andrew, and 4-year-old Leighton, have not been found.
The senior McComb told 3 News “right now it’s still a state of shock. … We’re a family of faith. It’s in the Lord’s hands. We believe in miracles, but we also believe in reality so we are just praying for the best. We hope Jonathan has a quick and painless recovery, and we hope they find Laura and the children and the many others that I’m sure are going through the same thing as a result of the flood.”
The families were all together but then the home either hit a bridge or embankment and they were separated.
The home is one of an estimated 300 reported to have been swept away by flash flooding in the area.
A private prayer service was held Sunday evening at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Corpus Christi, Texas, for local families who are still missing from the catastrophic flood in Wimberly. Among the missing are the McComb family, and Dr. Ralph and Sue Carey and daughter Michele, and Randy Charba.
A curfew was declared beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday and ending at 7 a.m. Monday for the cities of Wimberly, Hays County, and San Marcos, Texas.
An estimated 1,000 homes have been flooded in Hays County, Texas, according to the Weather Channel. While some residents are still stranded in their homes, there are no longer people on their rooftops waiting for rescue.
The Blanco River was reported to have risen more than 33 feet in just 3 hours in Wimberly, reaching a level of more than 27 feet above flood stage at 1 a.m. Sunday. The Weather Channel reported that this broke the all-time record crests from 1929 by nearly 7 feet, before the river gauge stopped reporting.
Governor Greg Abbott has issued a media advisory that he will be visiting both Wichita Falls and Wimberly on Monday to survey recent storm damage and discuss with local leaders the statewide resources available for ongoing recovery efforts.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.