Latest news with #TexasPaintball
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
‘The worst nightmare you've ever had': Jonestown man recounts saving family from flood
JONESTOWN (KXAN) – As floodwaters rapidly rose overnight across Central Texas, one man's instincts may have saved a family's life. Unable to sleep, Matthew Crowder showed up to work early at Texas Paintball, on the banks of Big Sandy Creek in Jonestown. Realizing they wouldn't be opening for the day, he walked the property, snapping photos of the rising water. As he was leaving, a gut feeling made him turn back—and that's when he saw floodwater edging dangerously close to a nearby home. 'And then all of a sudden, just within 30 seconds, the people's front yard was starting to take on water, pretty bad,' Crowder added. He decided to start shouting to get their attention. That's when he saw a child with a dog exit the home. Moments later, his mother followed. He said she appeared in shock, so he took control, telling her 'make sure everyone's awake, get your head count, and let's make a plan.' He also called 911. As he waited for first responders, the water rose to waist-high, making it tough for children to get their footing, one briefly being swept away a short distance. Crowder recounts grabbing children, four of them, all under 12 years old, helping get them to safety. Crowder said that's when the power cut out. 'To be in that water and listening to the thunder, the loud, you know, water, the trees, hearing the roots come up off the trees and buildings crashing and things flying down the creek, and, you know, everyone, kind of yelling and, you know, screaming, trying to find who's where and stuff. It was definitely like surreal,' Crowder said. He lost his footing, water carrying him 20 feet down the road. Despite that, he got back on his feet and helped the mother, her children, their grandfather, and two dogs to safety. 'It's kind of like, you know, the worst nightmare you've ever had, and and just kind of realizing that in the moment is, is something that, if you haven't gone through it, it's really kind of hard to comprehend,' Crowder said. Among the children was a 12-year-old friend staying over for a sleepover. His mother later contacted KXAN, saying Crowder saved her son's life. Chrissy Eliashar recounted the moment the good Samaritan rescued her and her family when the unthinkable happened — floodwaters was slowly rushing into their Jonestown home in the early morning on July 5. 'At 4 a.m. my son Benny comes running and tells me, 'Somebody is screaming outside and the dogs are barking,'' Eliashar said. 'And sure enough we run to the front door, open it and there's a person screaming for us to get out of the house. Our front yard was a rushing river.' But despite the rushing waters, Crowder continued to help the family of five and their dogs to safety. When they attempted to leave the house the backyard was unfortunately 'already a lake,' Eliashar described. So, with five kids and their dogs, they escaped through the front yard, which by that point was already a river, Eliashar said. 'These guys were really, really brave,' Eliashar said, referencing the kids. In that moment of fighting to get to safety, Eliashar said it felt like the time was going second-by-second. 'It felt like a minute,' said 12-year-old Daniel Polner, the friend staying over at the Eliashar family's house. Polner said the adrenaline was what kept them going. 'You're just thinking get out of there,' Polner said. As for the good Samaritan, Crowder, Eliashar said she is grateful for him. 'He was in the right place and the right time. He was being a good leader,' Eliashar said. In the moment of panic he was the voice that guided all of them to safety, she said. Having gone through this stressful and scary experience, the family would like to remind others to listen to evacuations and flash floods because it could potentially be life-threatening or dangerous. According to a fundraising effort on GoFundMe, the Eliashar family lost their home, car and belongings. They had no flood insurance and only got away with the clothes on their backs. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
09-07-2025
- Climate
'Send help or not, I have work to do': Texas man rescues family from catastrophic flood
As Central Texas grapples with one of its worst flooding disasters, which has claimed at least 110 lives and left 170 people missing, acts of courage shine through the darkness. Among them is Matthew Crowder, who rushed into the raging waters to rescue a sleeping family before dawn on July 4. Crowder, a manager at Texas Paintball, said he was headed to work around 3 a.m. local time when he noticed the rapidly rising floodwaters. That's when he spotted a house in danger, with people still asleep inside. "I started yelling to wake them up," Crowder recalled to ABC News. "The first one to come out was the oldest son, Benny. He saw his front yard become a raging river." Despite emergency dispatchers advising the family to stay put, Crowder knew they needed to evacuate immediately. "The house was making noise, trees were coming down, and water was rushing under the house," he explained. "I told dispatch, 'Send help or not, I have work to do.'" The rescue came at a crucial time. Just hours earlier, at 1:14 a.m., officials had upgraded the flash flood watch to a warning for parts of Kerr County. By 4:03 a.m., they had declared a flash flood emergency. The region would ultimately receive 15 inches of rain, more than double what meteorologists had predicted. For the family Crowder saved, he said the losses are staggering. "They lost everything - their car, their house. When I saw them yesterday, they were working with whatever they could salvage in trash bags," Crowder said. Crowder said he is now volunteering around the community to help families in need after the flood. He told ABC news the community's response has been overwhelming. Crowder's workplace, one of the largest businesses in the Dovestown area, has been flooded with offers of help. A GoFundMe campaign for the rescued family is "doing great," according to Crowder, and similar stories of neighbors helping neighbors continue to emerge.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
A family slept as Texas floods raged. A stranger screamed, and saved their lives.
When Matthew Crowder got to work at Texas Paintball around 4 a.m. on July 5, the floodwaters had already begun to rise. Relentless rain late July 3 and early July 4 triggered historic flash floods, which have wreaked havoc across central Texas and killed at least 80 people. He noticed the water was encircling a nearby home, so Crowder called 911. "That's when everything went south, real quick," Crowder said. The water swelled rapidly, so Crowder jumped into action and screamed to rouse whoever was in the home. Inside, Chrissy Eliashar's son heard the commotion and woke her up. Eliashar quickly gathered her three kids and a family friend who was sleeping over, all under the age of 12, and the four dogs inside the house and headed to the porch, where she watched helplessly as her car floated away. Crowder told her to try escaping through their backyard. "That had already become a lake," she said. "So then I'm really panicking." Crowder, who was clinging to a nearby chain-link fence, grew even more worried as the storm roared, nearby trees snapped, and the house creaked eerily. He yelled for the family to make their way to him. Eliashar and the kids waded into the fast-moving, knee-deep water. "My daughter actually fell and lost her shoe and nearly lost her life," she said. "My son grabbed her arm and picked her up, and we were able to just keep walking just a few more paces." Crowder, too, was briefly swept away by the floodwaters and injured his back and ankle. But he said seeing Eliashar's child slip was the most harrowing moment of the entire ordeal. "That kid getting swept away, like genuinely, I thought that that was it," he said. "That was the worst feeling I think I've ever experienced in my life." Finally, Eliashar's family was able to take refuge in her father's pickup. Crowder pulled them out of the vehicle one by one and took them to a neighbor's yard. Eliashar's father, a 75-year-old Vietnam veteran who lives in a trailer on their property, was also able to escape. Eliashar said police were able to drive the family to higher ground, where they waited until a friend took them in. The next day, she returned to find their home completely washed off its foundation. "It's completely destroyed," she said. "The floors are buckled. It's covered in mud. The waterline is to about the waist inside." Still, Eliashar is grateful to be alive and credits Crowder with making it possible. "I'm so grateful that he screamed and was able to wake us up and be that guide to safety for us," she said. "He really saved us." Though devastating, the disaster has brought out the best in the community, prompting many friends, neighbors and strangers to undertake similar acts of kindness and bravery, Crowder said as he helped clean up the area on July 6. More than $36,000 has been raised on GoFundMe to help the Eliashar family rebuild. "When these things happen to people, it makes them see how helping people, even the biggest or smallest ways, is so important," Crowder said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Family was asleep as Texas floods raged. A stranger saved them.
