BOERNE, Texas – First responders who helped carry out rescues and recovery efforts in the Fourth of July floods are now opening up about what they experienced.
Boerne Fire Department Lieutenant Joe Rodriguez and firefighter Andy Creech were part of a boat rescue team of seven people called to Comfort around 7:45 a.m. on July 4, 2025.
Within around 15 minutes, the crew said heavy overnight rain turned the Guadalupe River into a dangerous, fast-moving torrent.
“We had heard the rain start probably around 2 o’clock,” Creech said.
Rodriguez said their first call involved multiple people trapped in rising water in Center Point.
“The first rescue was on Carolyn Drive in Center Point with a male stuck in a bush and a family stuck in a house, a family of six, so seven total,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the crew worked with care and precision as debris surged past them and water moved faster than what they could simulate in training.
“The force of that water and how much stuff is coming down on us,” Creech said. “We’re chopping it for us.”
“At some points it was 120,000 cubic feet per second, which is rapidly moving faster than any water we can train in,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the crew ultimately rescued eight people that day — a family of seven and one additional person — working from around 9 a.m. until around 7 p.m.
He also said the drives between rescue sites were unusually quiet. They would return in the day and weeks later for recovery efforts as well.
“Traditionally, firefighters, we like to laugh and cut up and joke pretty much constantly,” Rodriguez said. “It was a very silent truck ride to each place that we went. It was very focus-driven and a lot of unknown because for the three of us, this was the first time any of us had been put in that situation.”
The crew described the response as organized chaos, relying on training and instinct while trying to coordinate in rapidly changing conditions.
The most vivid memory, Rodriguez said, was a rescue on River Road in Center Point involving a girl stranded in a tree above the river.
“The main rescue was the girl stuck in a tree on River Road in Center Point when she was in the middle of the river,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the girl floated from Ingram and “had been stuck in that tree since 4 in the morning.”
He said Texas Game Wardens coordinated with their boat crew to reach the girl around 12 feet off the ground in the fastest water they had ever seen.
“We were going up the river, lost propulsion on the boat multiple times,” Rodriguez said. “We kept getting engine failure and it pushed us to the center of the river.”
In one of the most daring rescue moments, Creech transferred from one boat to another in the moving water to help stabilize the effort.
“You are so focused on the mission that there’s not any time to think about anything else,” Creech said.
Rodriguez said that trust extended beyond their own crew.
“We didn’t even know each other’s names,” he said, but they relied on training and one another to complete the rescue.
Both Rodriguez and Creech said they still think about the people they helped and the families who did not make it.
They said the experience is also changing the way crews train, with peers asking more questions and pushing for more preparation for worst-case scenarios.
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