As cleanup and recovery operations get underway in Texas in the wake of historic and deadly flooding, incredible stories of survival are starting to emerge. Matthew Crowder joined FOX Weather from Leander, Texas, on Monday afternoon to explain how he was able to save a family from the raging floodwaters.
JONESTOWN, Texas– A Texas man took matters into his own hands when he bravely rescued a family as their home was flooding during the deadly and historic floods on the Fourth of July.
Matthew Crowder said he passes by the neighborhood where the rescue happened every day to get to work. He told FOX Weather he was going to work early, at about 2:30 a.m. and didn’t expect to see flooding.
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Photo of the floodwaters in Jonestown, Texas.
(Matthew Crowder)
He got out of his vehicle in a neighborhood in Jonestown, when he saw a family trapped in their home that was filling with floodwater.
Crowder said when he realized what was happening, he called 911. But the situation was fast becoming more dire.
“Something had to be done immediately,” Crowder said. “That’s kind of when I started yelling out to them, and we began that evacuation process.”
Crissy Cuthbertson Eliashar of Jonestown, Texas spoke with FOX Weather about her family’s harrowing escape from rising floodwaters in the predawn hours of July Fourth. Her son woke up to the voice of a passing by good Samaritan, Matthew Crowder and Eliashar and her three children, elderly father and pets were all able to safely escape as water rushed into their home.
Crissy Cuthbertson Eliashar said she was jolted awake in the predawn hours that day by strange sounds and one of her sons, who heard a man yelling outside their home, telling them to evacuate.
That man, Crissy would later find out, was Crowder. “Sheer panic, absolute terror,” were the first thoughts running through her mind when she woke up that morning, she told FOX Weather on Friday.
Crowder said he’d never seen or spoken to the family before the rescue played out.
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Betty Matteson, 94, told FOX Weather Meteorologist Kiyana Lewis that her grandson woke her up when the flooding came into their Hunt, Texas home. The family rushed into the attic, where they watched the water come up near the attic on the three-story home. They were about to climb onto the roof with the water finally stopped rising.
“I had to do something for these people,” he said.
Eliashar said she quickly rounded up her three children, elderly father and pets as their house started quickly filling with water.
Crowder described the rescue as “chaotic.” He said the power went out halfway through the rescue, making it pitch black while he got the people to safety.
“It was a terrible decision to have to walk out into that rushing water,” Eliashar said.”It was absolutely clearly, deadly dangerous but it was rising so fast.”
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Video from Friday during the devastating flooding shows a house moving downriver before getting caught against a bridge in Center Point. The flooding has left more than 100 people dead across Texas hill country.
Crowder assisted Eliashar’s family with getting from their front porch into their truck and then ran to see what the safest way to get them out would be.
Eliashar’s other car had already washed away during the flood. Crowder almost followed suit.
“I had gotten overcome by some water and pushed down the street,” Crowder said. He twisted his ankle and got some cuts and scrapes.
In the end, he and the family made it out safely.
“They were so incredibly brave and strong, all they were worried about was getting out with their dogs,” Eliashar said of her kids.
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FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray got a firsthand look at the devastation caused by historic and deadly flooding that decimated communities across Texas’ Hill Country over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
“I just believe it was, I was in the right place at the right time,” Crowder said.
He said what he did still hasn’t hit him. “My family is proud,” he said.
Eliashar was reunited with her husband, who was working at the time, and they are currently staying with family friends.
As for what’s next, Eliashar is unsure but said she is grateful for the community around her family.
“We definitely can feel that love from the world, and we just need that pinch of kindness from all over to help us get to that next step,” she said.
Eliashar thanked Crowder for helping save her family’s lives.
“It was Matthew Crowder’s voice screaming that woke us up for sure and then my son went into action, so the only way we made it was a team effort.”
