Texas Tragedy: Father Battles Flash Floods in Vain Attempt to Save Daughters
A family’s Fourth of July vacation turned into a nightmare as Brooke and Blair Harber sent final texts to their parents just moments before a devastating flash flood swept their cabin away.
HUNT, TEXAS — A Fourth of July celebration ended in heartbreak when a sudden flash flood tore through a cabin community in Central Texas, killing two young sisters and leaving their grandparents missing.
RJ Harber, a 45-year-old attorney from Dallas, was awakened at around 3:30 a.m. Friday to torrential rain and thunder pounding on the roof of his family’s cabin in the Casa Bonita resort near Hunt. Moments later, he stepped onto the cabin floor—and into several inches of water.
Realizing the floodwaters were rapidly rising, he turned to his wife, Annie, and said, “The cabin’s flooding.”
Within minutes, the water had risen to Annie’s neck. The couple escaped through a window and ran through the storm to warn neighboring families. RJ managed to wake two other cabins before attempting a desperate rescue of his daughters, 11-year-old Brooke and 13-year-old Blair, who were sleeping in a nearby cabin with their grandparents, Mike and Charlene Harber.
Donning a life vest and grabbing a flashlight, RJ launched a kayak into the raging river, aiming for the cabin just 100 feet away. But the water was no longer a river—it was a torrent. Crashing into a post midway, he was forced to abandon the attempt.
“I’ve kayaked enough to know whitewater when I see it,” he said. “If I took one more stroke, it would’ve been a death sentence.”
Tragically, by the time the family reached higher ground across Highway 39, a series of texts had already been sent.
“I love you,” read the message RJ received from Brooke at 3:30 a.m.
Annie, 43, who worked at the girls’ school—St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas—also received messages from both daughters at the same time. Another text was sent to their grandfather in Michigan, along with a photo of the girls.
When daylight came, RJ returned to the cabin site. It was unrecognizable.
Of the 20 cabins that made up Casa Bonita, only six remained. The others were ripped clean from their foundations, reduced to broken tiles and scattered debris. The cabin where Brooke, Blair, and their grandparents had been staying was gone.
The bodies of both girls were recovered downstream, about 12 miles from where the cabin had stood. As of Sunday, their grandparents are still missing.
The Harbers had owned the cabin since 2020. It had been their family’s peaceful escape—a place filled with memories of kayaking, fishing, and laughter.
Now, RJ says, “All those great memories are now a bad memory.”
Texas authorities are continuing to search the area for missing persons as recovery efforts proceed. The disaster, fueled by unexpected flash flooding over the holiday weekend, has claimed dozens of lives across Central Texas, marking one of the most devastating natural events the region has seen in years.