The four-legged member of a Texas family swept away by floodwaters has been found alive.
Maggie, a yellow Lab, was rescued Sunday after a resident spotted her in a tree near the Blanco River in Wimberley, the Statesman reports.
Maggie belongs to the McComb family of Corpus Christi, who were spending Memorial Day weekend with eight other people in a house on the Blanco River when the devastating flooding occurred Saturday night.
Jonathan McComb was rescued, but his wife, Laura, and their two young children, Andrew and Leighton, are still missing, along with the others who were staying in the house.
Laura called her sister, Julie Shields, about 1 a.m. Sunday, Shields told KVUE. She said she was in a house floating down the river.
“Tell mom and dad, ‘I love you,’ and pray,” she told Shields.
Jonathan told Shields everyone had been holding hands inside the house, which broke off its wooden stilts and was swept down the raging river. When the house struck a bridge and broke apart, Jonathan was separated from the others.
Rescue crews found him on a riverbank several miles from where the house once stood. He suffered a collapsed lung, and broken sternum and rib, and is being treated at a San Antonio hospital.
“He is absolutely devastated,” Shields told KVUE. “He did everything he possibly could to save them.”
With the assistance of FEMA’s Texas Task Force One, crews are using search-and-rescue dogs, infrared technology, drones and boat squads in the effort to find those still missing. Kiii News reported today that 22 volunteer teams comprised of 250 people are also assisting in the search effort.
[UPDATE: Tragically, the bodies of Laura and Andrew have been found. Four-year-old Leighton is still missing.]
Angela Clendenin, a spokeswoman for the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team, said finding Maggie alive was “just amazing.”
“It’s just a good part of that story,” she told the Statesman.
Here’s how you can help animal shelters affected by the severe weather in Texas.