Woman rescued after flood sweeps her 20 miles down river

Cars swept away by the flooded Guadalupe River sit atop debris in Hunt, Texas, near the site of Camp Mystic, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. Rescuers swarmed stretches of the swollen Guadalupe River in Central Texas on Saturday morning in a desperate search for more than two dozen missing campers and others swept downstream by intense flooding. (Carter Johnston/The New York Times)

By Pooja Salhotra

Carl Jeter heard the screams early Friday as he was surveying the flood damage on the deck of his home in Center Point, Texas. When he went to investigate, he saw a young woman sitting in the branches of a tree above racing floodwaters.

Jeter went to find help. Two boats from the fire departments in Boerne and Center Point arrived. Rescuers climbed up the tree and tossed the woman a life jacket that she put on before releasing her grip on the branches and dropping into a raft.

Her survival story was even more remarkable than her rescue. She had been camping with her family in Ingram, 20 miles upriver, when she was suddenly swept into the rising river before dawn and carried downstream for miles.

“She was dodging RVs and refrigerators and all kinds of things in the river,” Jeter said. “She crossed four dams and went under bridges to get here.”

Jeter, 70, said the flooding was the worst he had ever seen in the flood-prone region, and he was shocked the woman managed to survive the storm, which caused the Guadalupe River near his home to rise more than 20 feet in less than two hours.

Jeter said he brought the woman into his house and gave her hot chocolate and a shower before helping her telephone her family members. Then she went to a hospital where she spent the night and remained Saturday, he said.

Chris Shadrock, spokesperson for the city of Boerne, confirmed the woman had been rescued from a tree but said he had no information about her condition. He did not release her name.

It wasn’t clear what happened to her family members. At least 52 people died in the central Texas floods and many more were missing, officials said Saturday.

Rescuers from the city of Boerne rescued seven more individuals Friday, according to Shadrock. On Saturday, water levels had lowered, though flash flood warnings were still in effect in some parts of central Texas.