Nearly one year after catastrophic floods in Texas, Brian Eads can still remember the last thing he shouted to his wife before the raging waters ripped her from his grasp.
The heartbreaking memory has become one of countless stories of loss to emerge from the devastating flooding that tore through Texas Hill Country over the Fourth of July holiday, when rivers surged roughly 25 feet in about 45 minutes, swallowing homes, RVs and campsites with little warning.
More than 130 people lost their lives, USA Today reports.
Among them was 52-year-old Katheryn Eads, a San Antonio professor who had traveled to Kerr County with Brian, her husband of three decades, for what was supposed to be a relaxing holiday weekend.
Recalling the heartbreaking day he lost his wife, Brian, 53, told People that he first woke around 2:30 a.m. to the sound of heavy rain. Looking outside their RV, he noticed “some puddling” but initially believed the situation was under control.
“We were kind of elevated, too,” the Navy veteran shared. “It’s not like we were river level. So, I looked outside and I saw some puddling in the parking areas and stuff and I was like, ‘OK, no big deal.’”
He went back to sleep.
Flash flood
About an hour later, however, something didn’t feel right.
When Brian opened the RV door again, the water had climbed to just below the top step.
“Babe, we got to go. We got to go right now,” he told his wife, waking her from her sleep.
The couple rushed outside and tried to reach Brian’s truck, but the current was already overpowering. Another camper offered to help by driving them across the road in the bed of his pickup.
But it wasn’t enough.
“He got maybe 20 to 30 feet and then the water drowned his engine out,” Brian recalled of the driver, who was later taken by the sweeping waters. “We were watching RV after RV got swept away, and then we got swept out into the river.”
‘Find something to float on’
As the flood carried them away, the couple managed to stay within earshot for only a few terrifying moments.
“I was just screaming out, ‘Just find something to float on!’” the divemaster recalled yelling to Katheryn.
Seconds later, debris struck Brian in the back of the head and forced him underwater.
“When I finally made it to the surface, I called out to her and she never responded,” he told People. “Then I allowed my training to take over and just went into survival mode at that point. I was able to climb a tree; I don’t know how I did it… Luckily that tree held and I stayed there until I was rescued at around 7 o’clock in the morning.”
Send prayers for ‘my momma’
Still hoping Katheryn had survived, Brian refused to leave the area for treatment while crews searched for his missing wife, who he called his “anchor.”
Their daughter, Victoria, turned to Facebook as friends and family desperately waited for news.
“If you know me, you know prayers are usually the last thing I ask for. But right now I’ll take anything – prayers to whichever being you believe, good thoughts, vibes, whatever it is you believe in, and send it to my momma right now,” she shared in the July 4, 2025 post. “She and my dad were caught in the flooding early this morning. They found my dad, but we’re still trying to find her.”
Hours later, she shared a heartbreaking update: “Thank you everyone for the kind words. They found her, and unfortunately, she did not make it.”
Brian later learned where his wife had been found.
“She was right down about a quarter of a mile down the river from [where I was] on the river bank,” he told People. “She was deceased when they found her.”
‘She was everything to me’
Today, nearly a year later, Brian is still learning how to live without the woman he spent 30 years beside.
A week before the anniversary of the tragedy, he sold the Cibolo home he lived with Katheryn for six years, and now travels the country in an RV, describing the journey as part of his healing.
“I do have flashbacks, especially when it’s thunderstorming and stuff,” he said. “But it’s all part of what she would say: ‘You’ve got to face your fears, and don’t let it stop you.’ She would want me to live. She would want me to travel and see the country that I defended because I spent all my time overseas. I never really got to spend a lot of time here in the States.”
Even now, Brian says one lesson rises above everything else he endured that night.
“She was everything to me. After 30 years of being together, all of a sudden you’re on your own… Now I tell everybody you got to get out and live life, man, because you never know.”
Before sharing this story, please share your best wishes for Brian, and others who lost loved ones during the floods, in the comment section below.
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