'I don't know what to do.' Hunt man rides out flood in attic

HUNT, Texas (KXAN) -- Jenna Lair said her dad, Billy Hughes, bought his house in the Bumble Bee Hill neighborhood of Hunt more than 40 years ago.

"He's so far from the river, not in the floodplain," Lair said.

So the call she got around 5 a.m. on July 4 shocked her.

"He said I'm waist deep, the kitchen table is floating, I don't know what to do," she recanted. "He said he was sitting in the recliner in his living room, heard the toilet gurgle, saw water in the kitchen, and within moments all of his windows crashed in, and he was knee deep in seconds."

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help him rebuild. He lost everything.

As of Tuesday morning, 106 people have died in Kerr County, and 97 are still missing.

Lair said her dad went to the garage, pushed away a floating car, opened the latch to get into the attic, climbed up and waited.

"He got in there with just his phone, his wallet and glasses, and just stayed and prayed. He said he could hear people outside screaming for help," Lair said. "You can't see. You can just sit and pray."

The water didn't reach him, and he was able to wait it out until the floods receded. Later, Lair said, the sheriff's office took her dad to her house.

"That was one of the best moments," she said. "A muddy old man getting out of the sheriff's car and walking up to my porch."

She used three words to describe what has happened in her community in the last week and a half.

"Horrific, shocking and blessed."

We asked her to elaborate on the last word.

"It was surreal and shocking that this even happened, this much destruction, this much loss of life and property, but as the week progressed, I'm equally blown away at just the love and compassion," she said. "My own personal kids have learned compassion and humanity and love for one another through this tragedy."

Part of that is what she saw at her dad's house.

"On the fifth, at my dad's house, before we could even get here, there were truckloads of men demoing his house. He didn't ask, just contractors he's known over the years," she said.