
Bedridden Texas father rescued by son-in-law moments before floodwater filled his room, family says
Sisto Charles, 77, had no way of escaping his San Angelo bed when the floodwater began gushing into the San Angelo home he shares with his family — and 911 wasn't answering their pleading calls for help, his daughter told The Post.
'I was crying, it was sad,' Rachel Sanchez, the homeowner and her father's caretaker, explained, adding that, 'I've lived there for 30 years, and nothing like that has ever happened.'
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3 Sisto Charles, 77, would have 'drowned' if his own family didn't rescue him during the flood, Sanchez said.
Courtesy of Rachel Sanchez
The horror unfolded in the family's home around 4 a.m. — around the same time residents of nearby Kerr County were alerted that the Guadalupe River was surging at an incredible rate.
Flood water was already gushing along the roadway and was strong enough to push a car carrying a couple into the Sanchez's front yard.
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'It looked like a river,' Sanchez recalled.
It was just moments before it started gushing into the home, quickly rising to thigh-high depths.
3 'It looked like a river,' Sanchez recalled.
Courtesy of Rachel Sanchez
Sanchez rabidly began unplugging every electrical cord in the home out of fear her husband, daughter and father could be electrocuted, but soon realized the family needed to escape.
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'I have my dad on hospice. I'm his caretaker and I was just more worried about him. He's bedridden. He can't walk or anything, it's very hard to move him. I couldn't lift him by myself, so I was just panicking,' Sanchez said.
Charles suffers from dementia and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, she explained. But her husband is also disabled, and recently had surgery on his ankle. Neither of the men would have been able to leave the home on their own.
Sanchez called 911 repeatedly for help. At first, she was told rescuers were inundated with calls and could not respond. Then, the calls stopped going through.
3 The water gushed into the house around 4 a.m.
Courtesy of Rachel Sanchez
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By that time, the water level had reached the bottom of Charles' mattress.
That's when her daughter's husband came in the nick of time — Robert, and his friend Gilbert, sailed into the home on kayaks and retrieved the entire family.
'They came through the alley. My daughter was at the very end of the alley and I could see her crying, saying, 'Mom, come, we're coming. Grandpa is going to be okay.' And it was sad. I was crying,' Sanchez said.
The men were able to lift Charles and deliver him to an ambulance that was up the road on higher ground — roughly six hours after the water breached the family's home.
The septuagenarian was found to be in good health and is being cared for at a local hospital.
When asked what would have happened if Robert and Gilbert didn't step in, Sanchez said simply: 'He would have drowned.'
Sanchez, her husband and younger daughter are staying with their older daughter and son-in-law as they wait to safely return to their home.
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The water has since receded, and Sanchez plans to visit her house soon, though she is unsure what to expect.
The property loss hits even harder for the family, and comes just on the heels of another disaster they suffered.
'It's just sad. Two years ago, my daughter lost everything in the fire. My oldest daughter and now we have to go stay with them. This is crazy.'

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New York Post
11-07-2025
- New York Post
Warning sirens helped this small Texas community survive flooding
As the Guadalupe River swelled from a wall of water heading downstream, sirens blared over the tiny river community of Comfort — a last-ditch warning to get out for those who had missed cellphone alerts and firefighters going street-to-street telling people to get out. Daniel Morales, assistant chief of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department, believes that long, flat tone the morning of July Fourth saved lives. 5 The siren is a last-ditch warning to get out for those who had missed cellphone alerts and firefighters going street-to-street telling people to get out. AP The sirens are a testament to the determination of a community that has experienced deadly floods in the past, warning residents of devastating floodwaters that hours earlier had killed at least 118 people in communities along the same river, including 27 campers and counselors in neighboring Kerr County. That county did not have a warning system like the one in Comfort. Everyone in Comfort, a more than 2,200-person unincorporated community in Kendall County, survived the flooding with many people along the river evacuating in time, Morales said. Comfort residents were driven by history 5 Daniel Morales is the assistant chief of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department. AP Morales has been with the department for decades. He was there when flooding in 1978 killed 33 people, 15 of them in Comfort, including his grandfather. So when an opportunity arose last year to expand the community's emergency warning system, he and other residents buckled down to find the funding. The fire department's siren needed an upgrade. While the firehouse got a new siren, Morales found a Missouri company that was willing to refurbish the old one at a low cost so it could be moved to a central location in Comfort Park where it was connected to a U.S. Geological Survey sensor at Cypress Creek. When the water level reaches a certain point, the sensor triggers the siren, but it can also be sounded manually. Follow The Post's coverage on the deadly Texas flooding 'We do for ourselves and for the community,' Morales said. 'If we hadn't had a drought the past months and the (Cypress) Creek hadn't been down, we could have had another (19)78. The past few days, I'll tell you, it brings back a lot.' Overcoming the cost hurdle for sirens Morales said they cobbled together money from a grant, from the county commission, the department's own budget and from the local electric utility, which also donated a siren pole. They also got help installing the flood sensor gauge in the creek. The price tag with all the donated materials and the costs the department fronted was somewhere around $50,000 to $60,000 or 'maybe a little more,' Morales said. 5 A drone view shows fallen trees, as a result of flash flooding, in Comfort, Texas. REUTERS In Kerr County, the price tag for a proposed flood warning system for a larger swath of the Guadalupe River was close to $1 million, which caused several county and city officials to balk when attempts at grants and other funding opportunities fell through. They ultimately didn't install the warning systems near the camps where dozens of young campers died in the recent flooding. In Comal County, Texas, about 90 miles east of Kerr County, the Guadalupe River meanders into Canyon Lake before picking back up on its journey to empty into the San Antonio Bay on the Gulf Coast. The county along with Guadalupe County, New Braunfels city government and the Water-Oriented Recreation District- a state-created entity- agreed to fund expanded flood sirens along the Guadalupe River. The project was completed in 2015 and Comal County now manages the system including the information from the river gauges and notifications about the river height. A message left for Comal County officials seeking details about the cost of the system was not returned Thursday. Training residents was key to success After the updated Comfort sirens were installed, the volunteer fire department spent months getting the community used to the siren tests that sound daily at noon, putting out messaging that if they hear a siren any other time of day, they should check local TV stations, the department's Facebook page and elsewhere for emergency notifications. The sirens make a specific sound for tornadoes and a long, flat tone for floods. So on July Fourth, if people in Comfort hadn't seen the weather alerts sent to phones or announced on radios, if they hadn't heard shouting firefighters going from street to street to evacuate, they heard the long tone and knew they had to leave their homes. A Facebook post on the department's page noted a mandatory evacuation of all residents along the Guadalupe River. 5 An emergency siren seen on top of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department in Comfort, Texas, on July 10, 2025. AP 5 Boerne Search and Rescue teams navigate upstream in an inflatable boat on the flooded Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025 in Comfort, Texas. Getty Images But Comfort was also miles away from the flash flooding that overtook the camps and didn't experience the cresting of the river flooding until after the terrifying rush of water in the pitch black early morning hours hit cabins. Many Comfort residents were already awake and aware of the rising water by the time the sirens sounded. The Guadalupe's crest was among the highest ever recorded at Comfort, rising from hip-height to three stories tall in over just two hours. Morales doesn't know if sirens would have changed things in Kerr County. But he knows they gave Comfort residents an extra level of warning. In recent days, Morales said he has been contacted by some of the funders to talk about adding a third siren in town. 'Anything we can do to add to the safety, we're going to sit down and try to make it work,' he said. 'The way things are happening, it might be time to enhance the system even further.' ___ This story has been updated to correct the name of a county to Kerr County, instead of Kerry County, in the 10th paragraph.


New York Post
09-07-2025
- New York Post
Dad who left kids voicemail before he was killed in Texas floods got evacuation alert after he was swept away
A Texas father who left his kids a heartbreaking voicemail moments before he was killed in the state's hellish flooding was sent a text message urging him to evacuate — but the alert came too late. Jeff Ramsey, 61, received a text from the Kerrville RV camp where he was staying with his wife and dog advising him to leave the grounds at 4:49 a.m. on July 4 as the floodwaters were already sweeping away him to his death, text messages obtained by The Post show. 'We have just received an emergency notification from the fire department that we do need to evacuate the park due to the river flooding,' the alert from HTR RV Park read. 'Please gather your things and you may go to the church parking lot and wait for further notification.' Advertisement 3 Jeff Ramsey, 61, and his 24-year-old son, Jake. Jeff was camping and swept away and killed by the Texas flooding. Obtained by the NY Post But that was no help to Ramsey and his wife, 46-year-old Tanya, who minutes earlier had hung up the phone after calling their son and daughter to tell them goodbye because they were about to die. 'He got that text as they were floating away. Literally right as he left my sister that goodbye message,' their 24-year-old son, Jake Ramsey, told The Post. 'It's your worst nightmare.' Advertisement 'Right, literally, the same time he left her that voicemail, as they were getting swept away, they received an evacuation text from their RV park saying 'Gather your belongings and head out as soon as possible.' It was ridiculous,' he added. The Ramseys' heartbreaking story comes as questions swirl about how Kerrville and greater Kerr County warned locals as the Guadalupe River rose to nearly 30 feet in under an hour that fateful morning. 3 A text message Ramsey received urging him to evacuate — after he and his wife had already been swept away. Obtained by the NY Post National Weather Service flash flood warnings were issued to local officials just after 1 a.m., but Kerrville's mayor has said he wasn't aware of the unfolding flooding until around 5:30 a.m. — about an hour after the Ramseys had already been swept away to their deaths. Advertisement A county 'CodeRed' alert was sent to local phones around 6 a.m., according to the Texas Tribune. It is unclear what fire department emergency notification the RV park was referring to in the text sent to the Ramseys and other campers. Rushing water was audible in the message Ramsey left his kids, while his wife was heard in the background screaming 'We're dying, we're dying!' 'You never heard this guy panic but we heard panic and fear in his voice,' his son said of the message. 'He called me once he realized there was no hope. It was a short voicemail. He just left me a voicemail. He said, 'Buddy. I love you so much. It doesn't look like we are going to make it. Tell Rachey I love her,'' he added, referring to his sister, Rachel. Advertisement 3 Jeff and his wife, Tanya, and their dog, Chloe, were all swept away — but Chloe managed to survive. Obtained by the NY Post Kerr County was the epicenter of the destruction that ravaged Texas during the holiday disaster, which has claimed the lives of at least 119 people. At least 95 of them were in Kerr County — 36 of whom were children. And more than 150 people are still missing in the area. Miraculously, Ramsey's dog — a whippet named Chloe — survived the flooding and had been reunited with his kids. But they are also left with questions about why so few people were aware of the danger they were in when they bedded down the night before — and why something like a local alarm system hadn't been installed years ago. 'The infrastructure for that seemed to have been outdated. It seemed like a lousy effort to evacuate. It should have been something where we saw a possibility we know the night before,' the son said. 'There should have been more that was done. The only thing I am aware that was done was my dad was sent a text after it was already too late. He already said goodbye to me and my sister.'


New York Post
08-07-2025
- New York Post
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