Corpus Christi man clings to hope while waiting for missing family in Texas Hill Country flooding

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Corpus Christi man is holding on to hope that his missing family members are found after being swept away by the Guadalupe River on Fourth of July. 

Retired architect Morgan Spear has been glued to the tv for days, waiting for any update on his family members who are missing. He said their home was located in Hunt, just up the road from Camp Mystic.

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“I would say that our house was probably 35 to 40 ft above the river level,” Spear said. “It was early in the morning around 3 or 3:30 or so and they were asleep when the river started coming up and the river rose so high they were able to climb, get out of the house, and they got up on the roof and the water kept rising until finally it just took the house and all of them down the river.”

His daughter, Lucy, is now recovering in a Fredericksburg hospital after hanging to a tree for four hours.

“They found her clinging to a tree and by helicopter — they were able to rescue her,” Spear said. “I’m so thankful for that. But I’m sad.”

Morgan said his granddaughter and her husband were found but they did not survive.

“My granddaughter, Paula Joe is her name — and just a beautiful young lady and had done such a beautiful job with her two children,” Spear said. 

Moved by the natural disaster that struck her hometown just months ago, Sinton High School student Madelynn McNabb took action. Her school’s FFA organized a drop-off location to collect gift cards for those in need.

“Our motto for FFA is learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve, and that’s just what we’re going to do is we’re going to serve our others in our community around us, our neighbors. It’s a Texan thing to do,” McNabb said. 

The two drop-off locations will be at the high school agriculture department and the Sinton ISD administration building. The community can drop off gift cards at either location Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m.

“So, we’re only accepting gift cards right now because that’s something that can be easily distributed,” McNabb said. “A lot of the donation centers up there are already overflowing with donations just from everybody in their area.”

McNabb said her heart goes out to the ones affected and hopes this donation helps. 

“It broke my heart. I saw a post yesterday about two sisters who had passed holding hands together, and I broke down crying,” McNabb said.

Spear said he takes the trip up to the Hill Country every Fourth of July with the family but this time he couldn’t make it. 

“This is the first time that I didn’t go to spend the 4th of July up there. I stayed in Corpus,” Spear said. “If I’d have been there, I probably would have gone down the river too. So you know life, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Spear’s great-grandchildren still haven’t been found, but he’s holding out hope that they will be.

“Just by all the memories that we had together, and the neatest thing was that my grandchildren and my granddaughter and her family, they were all here about a week ago visiting me,” Spear said. “And so, we had time together and you know it’s just hard to believe that they’re not here anymore.”

Spear’s son is at the hospital with his daughter and has been keeping him updated on the search efforts for their missing family members.

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