Texas flood victim's chilling final text before river washed house away revealed

A 21-year-old sent a final text message to her family before the house she was in was washed away. She has not yet been found following thehorrific floods in Texas.

Crews are trudging through debris and wading into swollen riverbanks again today in the search for victims of the catastrophic flooding over the July Fourth weekend which killed at least 89 people,including more than two dozen campers and counsellors from an all-girls Christian camp. With more rain on the way, the risk of more flooding is still high in saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise as crews looked for the many people who were still missing.

And among those who have not been found is Joyce Badon, 21, who pleaded for help from a house along the Guadalupe River which burst its banks. Louis Deppe is leading volunteers who are trying to help her family find her daughter, who had been staying with three friends Ella Cahill, Reese Manchaca and Aiden Heartfield. They went to spend the July 4 holiday together at a country house.

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“Their house collapsed at about 4 in the morning and they were being washed away. On her cellphone, the last message (her family) got was 'we're being washed away' and the phone went dead,” Mr Deppe told AFP.

Volunteers are working through debris. Mr Deppe told of one body being found around 10ft up a tree. Tina Hambly, 55, the mum of a friend of Joyce, is also involved in the search.

"We're doing a seven-mile stretch, and there's seven teams and we're doing a mile apiece, so just kind of dividing and conquering, trying to find any four of them or anyone,” said Ms Hambly. “But, you know, we are friends and families and frankly, some strangers have shown up."

Joyce’s dad Ty Badon is also looking for the missing group. "It's been four o'clock yesterday morning that we were told that they were on the phone with Aidan's dad, who they own the house where they were," Ty told CNN on Saturday, adding that the house "is no longer there."

"Aidan said, 'Hey I've got to go, I've got to help Ella and Reese... they just got washed away,' and then a few seconds later the phone just went dead, and that's all we know," the 21-year-old's father said, recalling his last contact with the group.

"We pray that all four of them are still alive," Ty continued, sharing that authorities presume all four young adults were washed away in the flood. "All four are missing. They're still missing."

Tragically while searching Mr Badon said they found the body of a young boy. “My son and I were walking and I thought it was a mannequin. It was a little boy, eight or 10 years old, and he was dead,” he said. “We were just walking, doing the same thing we were doing when we stumbled across him. Hopefully we can find our children, my daughter and her friends alive.”