A Texas Family Clung to Life on their Roof, Capturing Terrifying Flooding

Jane Towler was up late in a small cabin along the Guadalupe River as thunder boomed through a thrashing rain.

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It was 4 a.m. and water was pooling on the floor. Suddenly, her phone rang. It was her friend from a nearby cabin. "Jane, we're fed!" Brian Keeper said frantically. "The water's in my house! Get out!"

Towler's grandfather bought the property in Texas Hill Country in the 1930s, and she's lived through many floods in her 70 years, losing a canoe or chairs here and there. But last Friday was different. The river would swell 26 feet (nearly 8 meters) in 45 minutes and lay waste to homes and buildings, sweep away cars and trucks, and claim the lives of more than 100 people, including many summer campers. Towler didn't know how bad things would get, but the fear in Keeper's voice kicked her into flight mode.

Pulling shoes onto bare feet, she ran in her pajamas toward the nearby house where her son, Alden Towler, and family friend Shabd Simon-Alexander were sleeping, along with Simon-Alexander's toddler daughter. Towler, her son and Simon-Alexander chronicled their harrowing survival in several videos and hundreds of photos shared with The Associated Press.