Texas sisters, 11 and 13, send haunting three-word text message before drowning as dad fought to save them
Blair, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were found dead about 12 hours after the flash floods erupted along the Guadalupe River early Friday morning.
The sisters were with their grandparents Mike and Charlene Harber at a rented cabin along the river in Hunt when they were swept away, the family has revealed.
As the parents were desperately searching for the girls, they checked their phones and saw they each received a text from their daughters that read 'I love you' at 3.30am. The girls also sent a similar message to their grandfather in Michigan.
Their bodies were found Friday afternoon in Kerrville, about 15 miles from the cabin. The sisters were found holding hands.
Blair and Brooke were eighth grade and sixth grade students respectively at St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas.
The sisters are among the 89 declared dead - with dozens more missing - when torrential rains created a near-Biblical flash flooding that caught thousands of Lone Star residents by surprise.
Mike and Charlene were in the cabin with the girls and are currently missing.
The young girls were staying with their grandparents in Casa Bonita cabin community near Hunt when the deadly flash floods broke out early Friday morning.
Their father RJ and mother Annie were staying in a separate cabin nearby. The couple were woken up by the sound of rushing water early Friday morning as their cabin began to flood.
They managed to escape the building by jumping out of a window as the water reached neck-level.
RJ started to kayak towards the cabin where his daughters and parents were staying, but swell knocked him into a post about halfway through his journey.
He shined a flashlight towards the cabin and saw an entire building had detached from the foundation and struck against the cabin where his family was.
'I shined a flashlight out there, and I could see it was white water, and I've kayaked enough to know that that was gonna be impossible,' RJ told The Wall Street Journal.
'There were cars floating at me and trees floating at me. I knew if I took even one stroke further, it was gonna be a death sentence.'
He kayaked back towards Annie and the pair headed to higher ground with other families who managed to flee the flooded campsite.
When they arrived at a safe spot, the couple checked their phones and saw they each received a text from their daughters that read 'I love you', timestamped at 3.30am.
The girls also sent a similar message to their grandfather in Michigan.
Blair and Brooke's bodies were found Friday afternoon in Kerrville, about 15 miles from the cabin.
'When they were found their hands were locked together,' a family member revealed in a crowdfunding campaign. The relative added: 'They had their rosaries with them.'
Their grandparents Mike, 76, and Charlene, 74, remain missing.
A GoFundMe account established in the family's honor has already raised more than $197,000, as of Monday morning.
Father Joshua J. Whitfield, the priest for the St. Rita Catholic Community, has vowed to honor the girls memory.
'Even if we may never fully understand why such tragedies happen, we are called to respond with love, compassion, and prayer,' Whitfield told KDFW.
'We will honor Blair and Brooke's lives, the light they shared, and the joy they brought to everyone who knew them.'
Annie is a teacher at the Catholic school her daughters attended. The church is offering counselors to support students and faculty impacted by the tragedy.
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