The Flood, Part 1

Summary

Podcast Summary: Where the River Took Us

Episode 1: "The Flood, Part 1"

Host: Aaron Parsley, Texas Monthly
Release Date: May 26, 2026
Theme: Recounting the Central Texas floods of July 4, 2025, through personal storytelling and survivor testimony.

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Overview

This debut episode of Where the River Took Us traces the harrowing night of July 4, 2025, when Central Texas was devastated by flash floods, ultimately claiming 119 lives—including that of host Aaron Parsley’s nephew. The episode weaves together personal recollections, raw grief, and exploring the concept of survival as a process, not merely a singular moment. Through intimate dialogue with family members and survivors, Parsley reconstructs the lead-up, catastrophe, and immediate aftermath of the flood that tore through their beloved riverside house on the Guadalupe.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Returning to 'Normal' After Loss

• Opening Reflection (00:28–02:00):
  Aaron Parsley opens with a personal vignette: going for a jog before his nephew's funeral, reliving memories, processing survivor’s guilt, gratitude, and the overwhelming grief that has reshaped his family.

  "As I started to run, my thoughts jumped around. From the relief and gratitude of surviving to the heartbreak over losing my nephew Clay. I started to worry about my sister. I worried about my dad. I thought about my husband Patrick, and how lucky we are to be alive." (00:52 — Aaron Parsley)

Sudden Onset of Disaster

• Memories of the River & the House (02:45–06:48):
  Rich descriptions of childhood memories and the serene beauty of the Guadalupe River set up sharp contrast for the violence to come. Family lore unfolds: the fun tradition of river vacations, the concrete water slide, dreams of generational gatherings.
• Awareness of Risk (06:30–07:48):
  The family recalls considering flood risk when buying the house. The property was deemed “safe,” built on piers above the 100-year flood plain.

  "We were four feet above the flood line... The Guadalupe feels like a really lazy river. It's extremely peaceful and calm and slow moving. But they call this area Flash Flood Alley." (06:37 — Alex Albright & Aaron Parsley)

The Lead-Up: Joy and Ordinary Family Life

• Day Before the Flood (08:45–14:28):
  The Parsleys describe a cheerful day: painting, swimming with the kids, rope swings, pizza for dinner, and charades.

  "It felt like a rare opportunity for my sister and me and her husbands to get together and spend time just the four of us, without the kids... just laughing and being silly. That's a really strong memory for me. Just because we had so much fun." (14:11 — Aaron Parsley)

Night Turns to Emergency

• Early Morning Storm (14:28–17:17):
  The narrative accelerates with rising anxiety: power flickers out, relentless thunder rolls, and rain grows more perilous. The first clear signs of imminent danger emerge before dawn.

  "I woke up to the sound of thunder. And it was loud and it was constant. The only thing on my mind was, I hope the rain will stop so that I can go for a run in the morning." (15:10 — Aaron Parsley)

• Realization and Panic (17:17–18:57):
  Family members realize water is not just rising, but invading.

  “We're in trouble. And you could see the water was slapping at the deck floor. ... Your mind just doesn't know quite what to do with that. It's a shock to the senses...” (17:22 — Aaron’s Dad & Aaron Parsley)

• Calling for Help (18:57–19:10):
  With the family stranded, 911 advises them to get as high as possible, rescue is unlikely.

Trapped and Powerless

• Seeking Safety (19:25–21:26):
  The children are placed on the kitchen island. The adults search for ways to raise themselves further or escape.

  "Alyssa had the kids on the kitchen island... just comforting them, talking to us from their spot on the countertop." (19:25 — Aaron Parsley)

• House Begins to Fail (21:26–23:59):
  Waters surge higher, doors are breached, windows shatter, the structure bends.

  "Within... 10 minutes, the water had risen a foot... the flow of the water, it opened the door. ... The house was bending and moving and walls cracking all along it and windows smashing." (21:26–23:04 — Lance, Alex Albright)

Catastrophe: The House Is Swept Away

• The House Breaks Apart (23:12–25:52):
  In rapid succession: the porch collapses, lights swing, outside trees zip past windows—then it becomes clear the house is moving.

  "You just don't really realize what that means... Now we're floating down the river. ... Your heart stops. ... All the windows broke, the walls cracked and the house just split open." (24:07–25:04 — Aaron Parsley)

Chaos in the Water

• Thrown into the Flood (25:52–28:58):
  Floodwater smashes through—family members are scattered; survival becomes a moment-to-moment struggle in total darkness.

  “This is how you die. People don't get out of this. But I also remember thinking, I am not going like this, you know?” (27:19 — Lance)
  “It was complete chaos underwater, pitch black. ... I got lodged under something and had a moment's realization ... well, this is what drowning is like.” (26:35–27:34 — Aaron’s Dad)
  “I remember grabbing onto several branches... But at a certain point, I did grab onto a pretty sturdy tree, and I was just kind of hanging on...” (29:25 — Aaron Parsley)

Stunned Survival and the Dawn

• Clinging to Life, Dawn as Focus (29:25–33:43):
  Aaron climbs a tree, focusing on the sunrise as hope. He oscillates between acceptance and a desperate, clear-headed will to survive.

  "I remember thinking to myself that I needed to stay calm. I needed to preserve my energy. ... I remember looking at my watch... and I thought, I have a little more than an hour before sunrise. I just wanted to see the light of day." (31:44 — Aaron Parsley)

• To Be Continued (33:43–34:02):
  The episode closes with a preview of the aftermath and rescue attempts, promising the next chapter.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What happened on the Guadalupe on July 4th of last year was so tragic for so many people, including my family. 119 people died. Since then, what I'm discovering is that survival is a process. It's not just making it out of the flood waters.” — Aaron Parsley (02:45)
• "It just started to sink in that we were trapped. At 4:55am, Lance called 911." — Aaron Parsley (18:30)
• "And then we heard a really loud crash.” — Aaron Parsley (23:12)
• “We were going fast. I heard at the top speed was 49 miles per hour. ... If you do that in a house ... that's essentially like a semi truck, fully loaded, crashing at a head-on collision." — Alex Albright (25:32)
• “I do have sort of this final image of my sister on the countertop with her kids.” — Aaron Parsley (26:00)
• “I was focused, and I didn't feel panicked. I just felt almost robotic, like, here comes a tree. Try to get over there. There's a branch. See if you can grab it. Hang on.” — Aaron Parsley (29:25)
• “If we both make it out of this, we're going to do that stuff and there's going to be no more waiting. ... I just wanted to see the light of day.” — Aaron Parsley (31:44)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening Reflection & Grief: 00:28–02:00
• Childhood Memories & House Backstory: 02:45–06:48
• Awareness of Flood Risk: 06:30–07:48
• Family River House Joy & Traditions: 08:45–14:28
• Nighttime Storm Escalation: 14:28–17:17
• Realization of Danger / 911 Call: 17:17–19:10
• Seeking Higher Ground / Trapped: 19:25–21:26
• Surreal, Catastrophic Moments: 23:12–25:52
• Dispersal and Survival in Water: 25:52–28:58
• Surviving in the Trees, Hoping for Dawn: 29:25–33:43
• Preview of Next Episode / Outro: 33:43–34:02

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Tone and Language

The episode maintains a tone of honest vulnerability—at times factual, at others poetic and haunted. Aaron Parsley openly vacillates between narrator, survivor, and grieving uncle. The dialogue among family is intimate, often raw, woven with moments of quietly devastating understatement and deep empathy.

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For Listeners

This episode stands as an immersive and wrenching account of personal and communal tragedy, lived in real time and retold from within. It inaugurates a series promising to delve into mourning, survival, and communal rebuilding—an unflinching yet compassionate chronicle of how people endure and begin again after unthinkable loss.

Transcript

[Aaron Parsley]

Before we get started, a warning that this show contains descriptions of subjects including child loss, drowning and grief.

[Alex Albright]

Texas monthly.

[Aaron Parsley]

On the morning of my nephew's funeral, eight days after the worst thing that's ever happened to my family, I got up before dawn and drove across town to a quiet neighborhood in Austin. It's my favorite place to go jogging. But I hadn't been on a run since the flood, since our river house was swept away by the Guadalupe, since my nephew was lost. I was ready to get back out there, to feel strong and to let my mind wander while my body is in motion. It's my time to be alone, to get connected to something bigger than myself. That's why I go before dawn, so I can see the sunrise. This is the spot that I was gonna walk us to. A few months later, I came back with my producer so you can hear what it's like. I always come by here when I run in the morning when it's still dark. It's quiet and peaceful. And in the summer the trees on either side are full and this little strip of road feels like a tunnel, like stepping into a dream. And it just feels surreal. As I started to run, my thoughts jumped around. From the relief and gratitude of surviving to the heartbreak over losing my nephew Clay. I started to worry about my sister. I worried about my dad. I thought about my husband Patrick, and how lucky we are to be alive. Before I knew it, my eyes were filling up. I looked up and the treetops started to blur, moving against the overcast sky.

[Lance]

Really quick, the house, it started to tip the ceiling and the wall of

[Alex Albright]

water came on top of me.

[Aaron's Dad]

It happened so fast that there wasn't even any screaming.

[Aaron Parsley]

I'm on the roof. Water was so loud and I said just complete chaos Underwater tried to swim

[Alex Albright]

towards and I thought this is it.

[Aaron Parsley]

This is how I end.

[Lance]

This is how you die. Like people don't get out of this.

[Aaron Parsley]

What happened on the Guadalupe on July 4th of last year was so tragic for so many people, including my family. 119 people died since then. What I'm discovering is that survival is a process. It's not just making it out of the flood waters. That's the story I want to tell. From Texas Monthly, I'm Aaron Parsley and this is where the river took us. Episode 1 the Flood Part 1. My earliest memory of the Guadalupe river is from trips that I took out there with my family as a kid. The Guadalupe, near its spring fed waters in Kerr county is a beautiful stretch of river about 100 miles west of Austin, the water is cool and clear with. With this otherworldly emerald color. It moves slow beneath this canopy of ancient cypress trees that tower over it. There are a lot of summer camps out there, and you can see why. I never went to camp along the Guadalupe, but my family did vacation there. My parents and their friends brought their kids, and we all stayed at the River Inn in Hunt, Texas. It's a funky little resort on the water. It had a bunch of simple rooms set up, and there was a lot of grilling going on, a lot of suntan lotion being applied. My favorite part was the water slide.

[Aaron's Dad]

Yeah, one thing I remember about the water slide, it's.

[Aaron Parsley]

It's.

[Aaron's Dad]

It's concrete.

[Aaron Parsley]

This is my dad, and the first

[Aaron's Dad]

time we went out there, you were pretty young and had cut off blue jeans, which had holes in the pants, and then the back of the blue jeans by the end of that first afternoon. So we had to get a new swimsuit for the next day.

[Aaron Parsley]

The memories I have of being at the river end along the Guadalupe are really vivid.

[Aaron's Dad]

Yeah, it's a beautiful place. Limestone cliffs and big trees and all. That area of the Guadalupe is one of the prettiest stretches of any river I've ever been around, not just in Texas.

[Aaron Parsley]

My dad remarried about 15 years ago, and in 2021, his wife, Alex Albright, started talking about buying a place on the Guadalupe. I was thrilled. This was going to be a special place for all the generations of our family to come together. And even the timing of the sale felt lucky. My dad and Alex closed on my niece Rosemary's birthday. The house was just over 3 miles downriver from the town of Hunt, which is where the North Fork and the south fork of the Guadalupe meet.

[Aaron's Dad]

It was real beautiful from the house just looking out on the river. But the prettiest place is lying on your back in the middle of the river and just floating. And you see tunnels of cypress trees both directions.

[Aaron Parsley]

It was a special place, and for me, it was a nice place to go and be alone. I once spent a month out there in the summer of 2023. Other times, it was a bustling, full and happy place. On special occasions, like the solar eclipse a couple years ago, or holidays like Easter or New Year's or the Fourth of July. When you were looking at it, did the prospect of flooding ever come up? Was that something you even thought about?

[Alex Albright]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Aaron Parsley]

This is my stepmom, Alex.

[Alex Albright]

Because when you buy the house, you

[Lance]

see that it was in the floodway. It was called the Floodway. I'm not sure then I understood what the floodway meant, but the house was on piers and we were four feet

[Aaron Parsley]

above the flood line. The Guadalupe feels like a really lazy river. It's extremely peaceful and calm and slow moving. But they call this area flash flood alley. It's because of the likelihood for thunderstorms that'll bring a lot of rain at once and the rocky hills that catch the rain and funnel it right down into the river. A lot of folks remember a flood that happened here early one morning in July of 1987. Five to ten inches of rain fell then, almost as much as the rainfall of last July. And the flooding killed 10 teenagers at a summer camp about 25 miles downriver from our property on the Guadalupe. Our house was supposed to be safe from all that. It was about 50 yards up from the river and it sat on concrete pillars above what we were told was the Hundred Year floodplain. So when you're sitting on the porch, you're looking out at the yard, which slopes down to the river below. I don't know if you're at the level of the treetops, but you're pretty high up there. Under the house between the pillars was a covered outdoor space where we could hang out or eat lunch. From there, there's a path that goes down to the river where there's a concrete landing and a rope swing. Last summer, my family gathered at the River House for another Fourth of July weekend. There would be seven of us. My husband Patrick and I arrived first the year before. The fireworks near our home in Austin had kept us up all night, so we were looking forward to peace and quiet. We left early on Thursday morning, July 3rd. Not long after we arrived. My sister and her husband Lance showed up with their two kids, Rosemary and Clay. And then my dad arrived at the River House too. He'd been in Colorado with Alex and her kids and grandkids, but he'd come back to Texas to spend time with us. This is Patrick.

[Lance]

We hung out for a while. Yeah, I did some painting. So there was a really large open area that was shaded underneath the house. Just a lot of room to work on some paintings without very many distractions.

[Aaron Parsley]

Patrick paints these large scale landscapes with acrylic paints. They're beautiful, they're dramatic, they're extremely colorful, kind of dreamy. This amazing texture and depth and these gorgeous skies that like depict transitioning light from light to dark. Some of them have stars, some of them have clouds. He's passionate about the natural world. He likes to fish he likes to be outdoors, and he grew up in the hill country. Patrick and I have been married for just over three years. And, you know, we have a lot of the same values. We like to stay home. We like to have sort of a quiet little life together. We're very different. Patrick is very hands on, very handy, and he likes to work outside. He likes to build things, he likes to fix things. He is very, very capable at everything he puts his mind to. Pretty soon after we got to the house, we realized that the water wasn't working. So Patrick, my dad, and Lance spent some time looking into it. They decided that the water pump was probably broken. Lance is a civil engineer and a problem solver. And I could see him trying to figure out what was going on with this water pump.

[Alex Albright]

And we had a pump company come out and said they were going to come back the next day and fix it.

[Aaron Parsley]

There was talk about leaving to get a hotel room, but our neighbors, the Tollivers, offered to help and said we could use their guest house if we needed a shower. So we stayed.

[Lance]

Here's Patrick and then you, myself and Alyssa, Rosemary and Clay all went swimming.

[Aaron Parsley]

And Alyssa had put Rosemary and Clay in the silliest looking life jackets and floaties. They were extremely protective of their kids around water. And Rosemary loved to swim. And she was swimming out to Patrick and then swimming back and just kicking her feet. She's really rambunctious, really active little girl.

[Lance]

And Rosemary wanted to go on the rope swing because she's kind of fearless. And then Clay wanted to do what his sister was doing.

[Aaron Parsley]

And Clay was being held by his mom. And he was in this. It's almost like a little chair that there's no way he can tip over in it, but it's a life jacket. And then, you know, Clay had seen his sister use the rope swing a couple times, but of course, you know, he's. And so Alyssa just kind of held him up and he grabbed the rope and she moved him backwards and forwards kind of as if he was swinging, and then slowly dipped his feet in the water. And we all kind of cheered as if he had done the rope swing himself. Alyssa is, you know, she's always been my best friend and just the person that I'm closest to. She always wanted to be a mom. And I remember when she and Lance got married that they wanted to have a family. And that's when I sort of realized I needed to get back to Texas and be a part of her life. After we did the rope swing a few times, it was time to go inside. It was overcast, it was cloudy, which was kind of a bummer. We wanted to spend more time and get more sun, but we decided to head in and get ready for dinner.

[Lance]

And then we went inside and hung out. And I was playing hide and seek with Rosemary and Clay sort of just wanted to be part of it.

[Aaron Parsley]

Patrick's great with the kids. He loves to get them all riled up and, you know, the noisier the better. So they took turns playing hide and seek. And if Rosemary opened the bathroom door and Patrick jumped out from behind it, she would scream and Clay would laugh.

[Lance]

He kind of knew what the deal was, but would just get excited when Rosemary would find me hiding or I would jump out and surprise them. And then I think Alyssa made pizzas. And yeah, we had dinner and just relaxed.

[Aaron Parsley]

We played charades.

[Lance]

Oh yeah, we played charades. Yeah.

[Aaron Parsley]

The four of us, Alyssa, Lance, you and me. I think it was Alyssa's idea to play charade. So we wrote down our favorite movies and books and TV shows on paper and put them in a bowl. And then we took turns pulling them out of the bowl and trying to act them out. And I think the first round, Alyssa and I were on a team and we just completely dominated because we know each other so well. After that, we switched up the teams. My dad was watching and laughing at us. It got real silly and it got real competitive. It felt like a rare opportunity for my sister and me and her husbands to get together and spend time just the four of us, without the kids. And we didn't have any place to be. And we spent the evening just laughing and being silly. That's a really strong memory for me. Just because we had so much fun. We were laughing.

[Lance]

Yeah.

[Aaron Parsley]

And like, it feels like the last time. We were all very happy. So after we played charades, we all said goodnight and went to bed. Around 11 or midnight, I got up and walked over to the Toliver's house to use the bathroom because the water was still out at the river house. I walked over there using a flashlight that they lent me. It wasn't raining. It was calm outside. Around 3 o' clock in the morning, I woke up to the sound of thunder. And it was loud and it was constant. And it's so weird to think back about that because the only thing on my mind was, I hope the rain will stop so that I can go for a run in the morning. And Patrick woke up too and told me later that he had similar thoughts, except that he was worried about the painting he'd been working on that was sitting on an easel under the house, and he didn't want it to get wet. But I went back to sleep, and I think I woke up about an hour, hour and a half later. And it sounded like footsteps above us or like maybe the kids were running around. And I didn't really know what to make of. Turns out that the noises I was hearing were pieces of debris that were being carried by the river pounding up against the outside of the house. And then I heard Lance calling out for my sister, and he was just trying to get Alyssa to wake up.

[Alex Albright]

I want to say about 3am the power went out. And we know this because the baby monitors will beep when the base is unplugged or powers out. And it was raining. It was raining pretty hard. And we had a spotlight, so we went out and looked. You know, there's nothing that seemed to be too severe. So we said, all right, let's just go back to sleep. Well, at 4:30am Roughly, Rosemary comes in my room and said, there's something on the roof. And I was like, all right, let's go. Let's go check it out. And I saw Clay was just smiling and in his crib. And I picked him up and took him with me, and we went out. And. I just can't. I will never forget the horror of what I saw. That water was up to the porch, roaring fast like it's unimaginable. We just yelled and was like, everyone, get up now.

[Aaron Parsley]

I got out of bed, and I walked into the living room where Lance was. I saw Lance kind of pacing back and forth really quickly. And my dad said, we're in trouble. And you could see the water was slapping at the deck floor. It just. Your mind just doesn't know quite what to do with that. It's a shock to the senses to see the water that high, to see the water moving that fast, to see the water a different color right outside the door. It's just really hard to believe. I mean, we're 50 yards from the river's edge, and then, I don't know, maybe 20ft up, and all of a sudden, the water is right there outside the door. But I rushed back to the bedroom, and I woke up Patrick.

[Lance]

And you said, the water is up to the porch. And I thought you meant the slab foundation. So my immediate thought was, oh, like, I gotta get up. We probably should move the cars. Then I came out, and I saw that it was right outside the door. And at this point. Alyssa came out and both the kids were up.

[Aaron Parsley]

At this point, we were all gathered in the kitchen and we're just trying to decide what we could do. We might have to get out of here. Our cars are underwater. The kayaks have washed away. I remember thinking about the life jackets that we left down by the river. They would have been long gone. It just started to sink in that we were trapped. At 4:55am Lance called 911.

[Alex Albright]

They said they've notified rescue teams, but it's a flood going on.

[Aaron Parsley]

They said a rescue was unlikely, so they told us to get up as high as we could go.

[Alex Albright]

Alyssa had the kids on the kitchen island.

[Aaron's Dad]

Big island, probably 10ft long, 5 or 6ft wide, and at least get the kids up on top of it and hope the waters didn't keep rising.

[Aaron Parsley]

I could see Alyssa with an arm around each of her kids, comforting them, talking to us from their spot on the countertop. Patrick walked by Clay at one point, and Clay looked up at him and smiled and kind of reached for him like he thought they were going to play again because they had been playing the night before.

[Lance]

We sort of just were standing around, you know, There wasn't much that we could do or that anyone knew what to do.

[Aaron's Dad]

I'd gone into my bedroom right off the kitchen, and the carpet was floating three or four inches off the floor, so that when you walked, it was kind of mushy and squishy. And that was pretty freaky.

[Aaron Parsley]

We talked about, is there an attic? There's no attic. Could we get on the roof? How would we get on the roof? We'll just have to wait it out. I don't know what was going through my mind, but I got dressed. I put on my contact lenses. I stuck my glasses and my sunglasses in my shirt pocket. I put my wallet, my keys and my phone in the pockets of my shorts. I remember I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. And I remember seeing through the dark bathroom window the headlights of a car. I don't think it registered, but in hindsight, it could have been one of our cars or someone else's car that was floating by the house outside the second story window. But the whole time I just kept thinking that, you know, the water's going to go down. This is really scary, but it's going to start going down. You know, I did have this sort of vision of someone coming to rescue us. You just don't. It just doesn't allow you to think that what's about to happen is about to Happen that the house is going to get picked up and broken apart, and you're all going to get swept away. Like, it's just literally unthinkable.

[Lance]

Within, I mean, maybe 10 minutes, the water had risen a foot, and you could see it on the outside of the sliding glass door.

[Aaron Parsley]

And I guess because of the flow of the water, it opened the door.

[Alex Albright]

Yeah, it flung the door wide open, and a lot of water started pouring in the front door. So I rushed to that door and pushed as hard as I could to shut it, and I locked it. And it held for, you know, that time being, and just kind of in a state from there of, like, defense, like, what else is going to happen?

[Aaron Parsley]

I just remember the noises that the debris was making as it hit the house. And I do remember that smell, you know, a little like mud, like rain. It was kind of a familiar smell, but not one that you are used to detecting inside the house. Right. Alyssa had put the kids on the island countertop, and at some point she got up there with them and had kind of one under each of her arms. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I could tell that she was reassuring the kids, kind of leaning in and talking to them in a low whisper and just telling them that things were going to be okay. And then when she talked to the rest of us in the room, like my dad or me, you know, she was urgent, and I could tell that she was scared. We heard a window break in the main bedroom, and I remember Rosemary asking why the window broke and water was just pouring in. And I think around that time, Clay started to cry.

[Alex Albright]

The house was bending and moving and walls cracking all along it and windows smashing.

[Aaron Parsley]

And then we heard a really loud crash.

[Aaron's Dad]

The part I remember the most is that shattering glass and the crash of that portion of the roof. When the house started breaking up, the

[Lance]

roof over the porch fell. And I'm assuming that the pillars holding up the porch were being pushed over. And so the porch probably collapsed. Not too long after that is when we felt the whole house sort of sway.

[Alex Albright]

The house bent and moved, probably as it was breaking off the foundation.

[Lance]

And I remember the hanging lights over the island swaying pretty dramatically. And then it felt still again. But out the window, I could see trees going by.

[Alex Albright]

Trees fly by the window like you're driving down the highway.

[Lance]

And I said, we're moving.

[Alex Albright]

Patrick yelled, we're moving.

[Aaron Parsley]

And you just. You don't really realize what that means. You don't have time to think, like, the house has been lifted off the Pillars. And now we're floating down the river. You just feel the house moving. You see the light swinging, but your heart stops. And you just are telling yourself it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay. Even though you know that this is not okay, that none of this is okay. And it all just happened really, really quickly. I mean, within seconds. And you're shaken and your perspective is switching around before you even have time to sort of process it.

[Alex Albright]

And I just, it was complete panic mode from then. We were just like, let's just keep the house intact. Maybe we can just ride with it and we'll land softly or something like that.

[Aaron Parsley]

And I think it was just a few seconds before all the windows broke, the walls cracked and the house just split open. And water, water poured in from every direction. The house must have hit a tree because it started to raise up on the down riverside. And had we stayed trapped inside that house as it filled up with water, who knows how we would have gotten out. But we were basically thrown out.

[Alex Albright]

We were going fast. I heard at the top speed was 49 miles per hour. The river. If you do that in a house and you crash into a tree at impact, that's essentially like a semi truck, fully loaded crashing at a head on collision. So we did that, you know, in the water, in the house. It blew up and just kind of threw us everywhere.

[Lance]

I remember being thrown into the dining room where you, your dad were standing. Lance was standing over there too.

[Aaron Parsley]

I do have sort of this final image of my sister on the countertop with her kids. I also have a image in my mind of water pouring in through the bedroom window and coming through the bedroom doorway, which opens up into the kitchen where they were, and just rushing in around me at just this incredible speed. And then I don't. That's the last thing I remember.

[Aaron's Dad]

When the house started breaking up. There wasn't even any screaming. And I just remember somehow being underwater. Just complete chaos underwater, pitch black.

[Alex Albright]

And where I was at, which was closest to that sliding glass door, the ceiling. And a wall of water came on top of me. And I had my watch light and I just saw that same door. And my instincts said, go over there and open that door and go out. So I went out the front door of the house and was in the roaring water. Things were underwater, grabbing your feet, pulling you under. I was getting hit in the head. I was just saying, don't get knocked out or that's over.

[Lance]

And I remember thinking like, this is how you die. People don't get out of this. But I also remember thinking, I am not going like this, you know?

[Aaron's Dad]

And I got lodged under something and had a moment's realization, holding my breath underwater, that, well, this is what drowning its lock. And then I pushed on it again, and something shifted, I think, and my lower part of my body was. Became unstuck. And I don't even know which way the surface was, but I remember getting on the surface and I got a breath. And then to this day, I don't remember anything after that. It's so weird.

[Aaron Parsley]

And then the next thing I know, I'm fully suspended in water. And the first thing I think of is that my shoes are gone. And then I do have this memory of sort of realizing, hey, I can't breathe underwater. I need to get some air. And just, like, pushing myself up and trying to reach the surface. And then I'm on the surface, and there's lightning going off like a strobe light. And in that white light, I could see a piece of silver metal roof kind of bobbing on the surface of the river. Patrick was up there

[Lance]

when I came up. I remember the roof was floating parallel to me, and I immediately started calling your name, and you responded and you

[Aaron Parsley]

said, I'm on the roof. And I just tried to swim towards it. And I don't remember ever seeing you, but I do remember, like, your hand on my arm.

[Lance]

And we were together for a moment,

[Aaron Parsley]

and then I got swept away, and I was on my own. Well, there's this very big contrast in my mind about the time before the house broke apart and everything that came after. Inside the house, we were trapped and panicked, and there's all this fear of the unknown. And the situation just kept getting worse and worse. And it was the most awful thing I've ever experienced. Once I was in the water, I don't know if it was survival instinct, but I was focused, and I didn't feel panicked. I just felt almost robotic, like, here comes a tree. Try to get over there. There's a branch. See if you can grab it. Hang on. Pull yourself up. Just do the next thing. Do the next thing. I remember grabbing onto several branches that kind of snapped off. You know, I remember having some leaves in my hands at the. But at a certain point, I did grab onto a pretty sturdy tree, and I was just kind of hanging on and trying to lift myself up. This roar of the river all around you. It just sounds like running water, gushing water, almost like white noise. But among that white noise, you hear this sort of like groaning and cracking of trees as they were coming down. I mean, there were trees everywhere and it was nonstop. And I was kind of pulling myself up into this tree and it came down while I was in, sort of started to bend and crack and slowly just lay down and put me back in the water. I was moving pretty quickly and grabbing at branches that were going by. And I ended up hanging onto this hackberry and then climbing up into it. And I kind of slowly but carefully climbed up higher and higher, as high as I could go. The water was kind of coming up and then going down and then coming up and going down. And I remember just like, basically talking to the tree and telling it to, like, be strong, please don't break. I need to stay out of the water. I remember thinking to myself that I needed to stay calm. I needed to preserve my energy. I didn't know how long I was going to be in this tree. I started to wonder about my family. I kind of told myself, you might be the only one who survived, that my dad might be gone, my sister might be gone, her kids might be gone, Lance could be gone. And I thought about the fact that Patrick might be gone. And I think I was just, like, looking for some acceptance, looking for a head start on facing reality. And it was emotional, but I wasn't panicking over them. I was just running through the possibilities. I also knew that I maybe wasn't going to survive. I thought, you know, I still might not make it. Patrick and I have only been married for three years and we've got plans. You know, we have stuff we want to do. And I remember thinking, if we both make it out of this, we're going to do that stuff and there's going to be no more waiting, no more putting it off. If we get to be together again, you know, it's going to be a second chance. That's what it boiled down to. I wanted more time. And I remember looking at my watch and it was around 5:20 in the morning, and I thought, I have a little more than an hour before sunrise. And that was what I started to focus on. I just wanted to see the light of day. On the next episode of where the River Took Us.

[Alex Albright]

We were worried about Rosemary being hypothermic and Alyssa too. And at this point, like, they were really needing to get down.

[Lance]

I climbed up onto that downed tree that was up from Alyssa, and I tied the water hose to a branch and. And then told Lance to hold onto that water hose and he waded out with an inner tube that had a netted bottom.

[Aaron Parsley]

Lance got right underneath, and I could see Alyssa and Rosemary up there, and Alyssa just pried her arms off of the tree. Where the River Took Us is a Texas monthly production written and hosted by me, Aaron Parsley. Executive producer is Melissa Reiss. Produced and edited by Patrick Michaels and Sarah Kinney. Produced, engineered and scored by Bryan Standifer. Story editing by J.K. nichol fact checking by Doyen Oyenyi art by Emily Kimbrough and Victoria Milner. Studio musicians are Jeff Queen and Peter Schultz. Sam.