Latest news with #JoyceCatherine
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Mom Finds Comfort in Breathtaking 'Sign' From Daughter Who Died in Texas Flood
The mother of a Texas flood victim says she received a sign from her late daughter: a vivid rainbow stretching across the sky. 'Joyce Catherine telling us from heaven 'all is well with my soul,'' Kellye Badon of Beaumont, Texas, wrote in a July 7 Facebook post. In Badon's photo, a soft arc of color gently rises from the trees near the water's edge and fades into the clouds above. Earlier that day, Badon shared the news that 21-year-old Joyce Catherine's body had been recovered after a three day search, writing, in part, "God showed us the way we should go this morning! We found our lovely daughter who blessed us for 21 years!" Joyce Catherine, an architecture major at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), was staying with friends at a riverfront home in Hunt, Texas, when a wall of water rushed through the property after heavy overnight storms. Badon alerted friends to the unfolding emergency and asked for prayers on Facebook. 'At 4 am this morning, a flash food came through and washed their cars away. It happened so quickly with so much water, they could not get in the attic,' Badon reported. She noted that the homeowner's son reached his father by phone, but while they were talking, he and two others were carried away by debris. Joyce Catherine was the last person to speak before the connection was lost. In an statement, SCAD described Joyce Catherine as a 'beloved daughter, friend, and classmate' who was passionate about using her talents to make a difference. She had recently contributed to the redesign of donation centers for Goodwill. The July 4 flash floods in Central Texas have claimed at least 119 lives, a toll that continues to rise as search crews and volunteers sift through wreckage. Among the dead are 27 children and counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' camp nestled along the Guadalupe River. As of July 9, 173 people remain missing. This article was originally published on
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Texas dad reveals truly horrific discovery he made while calling out missing daughter's name after floods
A Texas father has spoken about the harrowing moment he discovered a little boy's dead body as he searched for his own daughter in the aftermath of the horrific floods. Ty Badon was scouring the epicenter of the carnage in the rural town of Hunt over the weekend when he stumbled across the boy, who is one of at least 80 victims. 'My son and I were walking, and what I thought was a mannequin... it was a little boy, about eight or 10 years old, and he was dead,' Badon told CNN. The anguished father said he was searching for his 21-year-old daughter, Joyce Catherine, and his voice broke at the end of the interview as he asked for prayers. Badon said the last time anyone had contact with his daughter was on July 4, when the floods hit, as she spoke on the phone along with three of her friends. The group of four were staying in a cabin owned by another parent in the picturesque community, which sits around 120 miles west of Austin, Texas. Badon, a Beaumont resident, said his daughter told the owner of the cabin that two of the group had been washed away while she was on the phone. 'A few seconds later, the phone went dead, and that's all we know,' Badon said. The group of four were staying in a cabin owned by another parent in the picturesque community of Hunt (pictured after the flood), which sits around 120 miles west of Austin, Texas 'We presume that she got washed away as well. If you go back to where the house is, it's not a good sight.' Badon said the house the group were staying in is 'no longer there'. 'We pray that all four of them are still alive. They're all missing,' he said. His daughter is among dozens of people who are still missing, including 27 children, after the Guadalupe River rose more than 26 feet in just 45 minutes during the early hours of July 4, sending a wall of water over several communities in Kerr County. Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday that there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing. Hundreds of young girls at Camp Mystic, Christian summer camp on the banks of the river, and many people were on vacation in the rural area for the July Fourth weekend. Pictured: A volunteer searches for survivors in a home that was lifted off its foundation and slammed into a tree during the devastating floods of the Guadalupe River in Kerrville Residents have started questioning why officials did not warn them about the floods until 1.18pm on July 3 - the day they began - and framed them as only 'moderate' storms. The National Weather Service escalated the alert to a flash flood warning at 1am Friday, followed by a more serious Flash Flood Emergency by 4.30am. But by this point, water was already pouring into families' homes. Many Texans have blamed the slow updates as part of the reason the floods have been so deadly. The National Weather Service fired around 600 people in recent months as part of Donald Trump's sweeping cuts to federal services. It had recently begun the process of hiring 100 new employees. Trump has also proposed cuts to FEMA and NOAA, federal agencies which conduct climate research and help prepare states for natural disasters. The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up. Friday's flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches of rain in the dark early morning hours. Survivors have described the floods as a 'pitch black wall of death' and said they received no emergency warnings. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who lives along the Guadalupe River, said Saturday that 'nobody saw this coming.' Various officials have referred to it as a '100-year-flood,' meaning that the water levels were highly unlikely based on the historical record. Though it's hard to connect specific storms to a warming planet so soon after they occur, meteorologists say that a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture and allow severe storms to dump even more rain.
