HUNT, Texas – The general manager of a Hill Country resort and his wife are being hailed as heroes for alerting people staying there to head to higher ground early Friday morning.
“Beat on doors. Got people out. Told them to load and go,” said Scott Towery, who has lived on property at the River Inn Resort and Conference Center in Hunt for the past five years.
The resort is a mile from Camp Mystic and sits on the south shore of the Guadalupe River.
“It was like you were standing underneath a waterfall and it went straight over,” said Connie Towery, who was awakened by the storm just before 2 a.m. Friday.
The couple, along with an owner staying on the property, banged on the doors of the 60 rooms on the property, which were full of upwards of 130 visitors in town for the holiday weekend.
Scott Towery said many people were able to drive out of the parking lot and into a nearby neighborhood that offered higher ground to wait out the storm.
Dozens of others, however, were blocked from the neighborhood by rising waters and stayed in vehicles parked on State Highway 39.
Up to 50 people, according to eyewitnesses, were hoisted onto the roof of a building on property called the Mill House.
That included Seth and Emma Rieger, their six children and other family members.
“That’s when we knew, ‘Oh no, we can’t get up the hill anymore,’” Seth Rieger said.
Footage recorded by Emma Rieger shows people escaping to the roof of the Mill House as the flood waters continued to rise.
Scott Towery said bed sheets were used like rescue ropes to lift people out of the raging floods.
“We pushed and they pulled. One false step and you would have been gone,” said Scott Towery, whose legs Monday remained scraped up from being hit by debris while lifting people to safety.
Scott Towery said the water receded to a knee-high level around daybreak Friday, allowing people to finally leave the property.
Scott Towery said an engineer will inspect the property in the coming days, and a decision will then be made on what to do next with the property.
The portion of the resort facing the river sustained heavy damage and water appeared to reach five feet or higher in the first-floor rooms.
One woman who was staying at the resort with her husband was swept away and remained unaccounted for Monday night.
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