In a gripping interview with CBS Austin, Jason Mcham shared the terrifying story of how his home was swept away during the recent Texas floods—with his entire family still inside.
“The house broke loose, hit the tree, spun around, and floated down here,” Mcham told CBS Austin. “And so we’re floating inside the house.”
It all began early in the morning when his family received a flash flood alert. “We got a notification that a severe flash flood was coming our way,” he recalled. “I got up and looked out the window and I said, ‘Hey, there’s a little bit of water on the street,’ which is very typical in this neighborhood. I’ve lived here all my life.”
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But within moments, things turned deadly. “Then the electricity went off. I opened the back door and water was already over the top of our AC unit outside fixing to come in the house. I shut the door. We got everybody up, got clothes on, and then the next thing we know, our house is filling up with water.”
The floodwaters dislodged the house from its foundation, turning it into a vessel adrift in the darkness. “It was dark, so we didn’t know exactly where we were going to end up,” Mcham said. “And of course, the house was falling apart. Water’s pouring in from everywhere. Tree limbs poked through the back wall back there. Tore out the whole back corner of the house.”
With his wife and two daughters by his side, Mcham said they climbed to the highest point they could reach. “All we did was get up here by this window,” he said. “We were scared and we were doing a bunch of praying.”
After about three hours trapped inside the crumbling home, the family was rescued by emergency responders around 8:30 a.m. “Everybody down here, we couldn’t get out. It was a raging river coming through here,” Mcham said. “We had waited in about waist-deep water and got out. The fire department got us all out and took us to the community center.”
When he returned later in the day, the scope of devastation left him speechless. “We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we were devastated,’” he said. “I knew my place was bad, but I didn’t know how bad my dad’s house was on the corner and all these other places.”
Yet in the midst of destruction, Mcham said he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. “All the neighbors, they’ve been so good to us,” he said. “My boss that I work for, all my co-workers, all my subcontractors, they have all been calling me, my builders that I work with, all calling me wanting to come help. It just breaks my heart to see how many people down here helping all of us, just giving us their free labor. Man, it’s amazing. It’s amazing.”
Though Mcham and his family were spared, many others across Texas are mourning lost loved ones and destroyed homes. “We need help,” he pleaded. “A lot of us are homeless. We have nowhere to go. Some of them have flood insurance, some of them don’t.”
In the chaos and confusion, Mcham credits prayer for guiding them through. “We were doing a bunch of praying… watching the water rise and saying our prayers that nobody died.”
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Now, as the waters recede and communities begin the long road to recovery, believers are urged to pray for God’s peace, healing and comfort over the many families still suffering.
As Jesus commanded in Luke 21:36, “Watch therefore, and pray always…” — because in these turbulent times, prayer remains our anchor, and hope in Christ our firm foundation.
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
