Young sisters who perished in floods in Texas were discovered with “their hands locked together

After flash floods tore through the Texas Hill Country, two little sisters were discovered dead with their hands clasped together in a tragic scene that has rocked the country.

When tragedy struck early Friday morning, Blair and Brooke Harber, who were only 13 and 11 years old, were on a family vacation in Hunt’s gated neighborhood of Casa Bonita. As part of the catastrophic flooding that has killed dozens of people throughout Texas, the neighborhood was destroyed by a powerful deluge.

Around 3:30 a.m., the water started to surge in, startling the kids’ father, RJ Harber, awake, according to a GoFundMe campaign shared by their aunt Jennifer Harber. Jennifer claimed that it was almost impossible to hear the floodwaters bursting through their cabin’s door because of how hard the rain was beating. Brooke texted her dad and grandparents one last time, saying, “I love you.”

RJ and his spouse, Annie, immediately took action. Desperate to go to their girls, who were sleeping with their grandparents, Mike and Charlene Harber, in a nearby cabin, the couple broke a window to get out of their cabin.

However, the floodwaters showed no mercy. In a desperate attempt to paddle to their girls, RJ and Annie went to a neighbor’s house, knocked on the door, and borrowed a kayak. The current was very aggressive. In the end, they and five other neighbors were saved.

Rescuers found Blair and Brooke 12 hours later, 15 miles downstream. “Their hands were locked together,” Jennifer said to KLOU. Mike and Charlene Harber, the girls’ grandparents, are still unaccounted for. Their mother, Annie, is an instructional specialist at St. Rita’s Catholic School in Dallas, where Blair and Brooke attended school.

The catastrophe that would transpire was unimaginable to the family on their short summer vacation. According to RJ, Brooke “was like a light in any room, people gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment,” while Jennifer characterized Blair as “a gifted student with a generous, kind heart.”

According to their family, the fact that both sisters brought their rosary beads on the vacation is a testament to their strong religious beliefs. Two cabins had been assigned to the Harbers. In order to sleep peacefully with the girls, Mike and Charlene had accepted the offer of a neighbor’s larger house. That choice turned out to be lethal.

The Harber family is holding on to their faith and memories as the number of flood victims in Texas rises above 80 and over 40 individuals are still unaccounted for. Searches for the grandparents are still ongoing. Meanwhile, a distraught father can only cling to this terrible picture of two girls who are still connected in their love, even in their last moments.