Awful moment CBS reporter asks Texas floods dad how his son is doing only to receive the worst news possible
J.J. Jarmon, a flood survivor from near Big Sandy Creek, had been speaking with a reporter from CBS Austin when the interview took a tragic turn.
Unaware of the full scope of Jarmon's tragedy, the reporter inquired about his family.
'Your son has been found? How's he doing?' the reporter asked.
Jarmon's devastating response quickly clarified the horrific situation: 'He is no longer,' the father replied.
The reporter admitted he 'misunderstood' what Jarmon had previously said about his family, adding, 'I'm so sorry.'
Jarmon vividly recounted the terrifying moment floodwaters surged, waking him with 'loud bangs and a watery sound' against his back wall.
He watched in horror as his boats, once in located his yard, were gone, realizing 'the water had taken them down the stream.'
While Jarmon miraculously managed to climb to safety, his wife, Alissa, and 15-year-old son, Braxton, were killed.
His 16-year-old daughter, Felicity, remained missing.
The interviewer continued, saying 'I'm so sorry for your losses' before asking Jarmon, 'How are you feeling today?'
The father responded that he was 'managing the past few days since this has happened.'
'The anxiety of it is really crazy because I'm not really happy with the fact that [Felicity] hasn't been found.
'I'm happy for all the support, and I do understand there's a lot of circumstances, debris.'
Toward the end of the exchange, the interviewer said that he didn't want to ask an 'insensitive question,' but still questioned whether Jarmon had 'any hope at all at this point' that his daughter would be found alive.
'I really don't think so,' Jarmon replied. 'There's no way.'
At least 132 people have died in the flash floods that torn through the Hill Country region of Texas, and more than 100 people are still believed to be missing as recovery efforts are ongoing.
Among those killed in the tragedy were 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp.
Officials said five campers and one counselor from the camp have still not been found.
Community members are urgently calling on city and county officials to implement a warning system to prevent deadly disasters, such as floods and tornadoes.
Nearly 43,000 people had signed an online petition as of Tuesday morning requesting that old-fashioned outdoor sirens be installed across Kerr County, where the majority of fatalities occurred.
Authorities have faced scrutiny over the region's emergency alert system since the Guadalupe River swelled and broke its banks in the middle of night on July 4, with many locals alleging the alert response was delayed or never came at all.
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