Jane Towler was up late in a small cabin along the Guadalupe River as thunder boomed through a thrashing rain. It was 4 a.m. and water was pooling on the floor. Suddenly, her phone rang. It was her friend from a nearby cabin.

Residents are clinging to hope as the search continues for Mark and Sara Walker and their 14-year-old son Johnny.

A Texas family, their friend and her 1-year-old daughter were forced to escape rising floodwaters by clinging to a cabin roof for hours on the Fourth of July.

A retired nurse, her son and a family friend say they were lucky to survive last week's flash floods in Texas that killed more than 100 people, including many summer campers.

Whitney Slough said her husband and their two daughters were snorkeling about 20 feet from the beach when a small boat appeared along the shoreline.

Aaron Parsley, a senior editor at 'Texas Monthly' and former longtime staffer at PEOPLE, recalled being plunged into floodwaters with family members during the deadly storm in Texas on the Fourth of July.