After hours of waiting and praying in the attic, the water stopped rising and the family was rescued. A first responder helped Matteson, wearing a navy and pink floral dress and quilted white jacket, into the back of a car. Her family survived. Their home was not so lucky.

Camp Mystic owners successfully appealed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to redesignate some buildings that had been considered part of a flood-hazard zone.

“It’s hard not to feel like you are surrounded by a higher power when you’re down there, because it’s just so beautiful,” my friend Olivia Marrus told me.