The floods swept away a young couple and their friends. Searching for them brought their families together.

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KERRVILLE — Tanya Powell bought a big bouquet of yellow roses around noon Tuesday and waited to receive the news she feared: Her daughter, 21-year-old Ella Rose Cahill, whose name sounds like the flower, had been found dead.

“We used to call her the Ella Rose of Texas,” Powell said. “She was the best of us. She really was the purest and the sweetest.”

Ella and her boyfriend of six years, 22-year-old Aidan Heartfield, had traveled to Hunt with two of their friends, Reese Manchaca and Joyce Catherine Badon, to stay at Heartfield’s parents’ house for the Fourth of July weekend. All four of them were swept away by the catastrophic floods that hit the Hill Country early Friday, leaving more than 100 dead and more than 160 missing.

Authorities found Reese and Joyce’s bodies on Monday. On Tuesday evening, Powell received a call from the Texas Rangers to inform her they had identified Ella through her DNA and the gold cross she wore around her neck.

“It was like a relieved, happy, sad, horrible, wonderful news. I mean, I can’t even describe it, because you’re so happy that she’s still not out there somewhere,” Powell said. “But at the same time, it’s like this final moment.”

For Aidan’s dad, Thad Heartfield, closure has yet to come. He has been channeling his energy into working with a search-and-rescue nonprofit and leading volunteer efforts since Friday afternoon. Every morning at 6:30 a.m., Heartfield divides the crowd that gathers in front of the Walmart in Kerrville into smaller search groups. He has yet to turn away anyone willing to work, he said, and he wants more people to join his team.

Wearing a baseball cap and a blue button-down shirt on Thursday, Heartfield spoke in a matter-of-fact way. This is what he can manage right now. The time to grieve, he said, will come.

“It’s the reality I’m in. I’ve accepted this is just the process,” Heartfield said.

A sliver of hope follows him that Aidan — his kind and smart and gentle son — will rest easy soon.

“I always think today’s the day I’ll get a call from a DNA match,” Heartfield said. “I’m answering a lot of calls from numbers I don’t know. Every one of those calls, I think this could be that call.”

The four friends’ families are among the droves of volunteers who have descended into the region to join the search for victims. Like them, many searchers are family members sifting through debris and wading through the muddy waters of the Guadalupe River looking for their loved ones and those of others, even as hopes to find anyone alive have dimmed.

Search and rescue teams have poured into Central Texas to aid first responders looking for victims in helicopters, on horseback and on foot.

While dozens of civilian volunteers have also made their way to Central Texas, authorities in Kerr County have discouraged them from showing up for recovery efforts and have instead encouraged monetary donations. The county has also set up a database where volunteers can register to be called if needed, officials have said.

“We’ve had people from all over the state, all over the country volunteer their services,” Kerrville community services officer Jonathan Lamb said during a news conference Thursday. “But it’s important that we have certified professional search teams out there right now.”

With countless miles devastated by the flood, it’s unclear when the search will end.

In the parking lot of the Walmart on Thursday, Heartfield assembled a new team of volunteers to search for his son and others once again. The sun wasn’t up yet when Heartfield interlocked with volunteers on either side of him and led the group in prayer.

“Lord, give us strength to traverse this terrain,” Heartfield said.

“They were destined to get married”

Ella and Aidan started dating when they were sophomores at Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School in Beaumont and both moved to San Antonio for college. Ella went to the University of Texas at San Antonio and Aidan to Trinity University.

The couple had a “deep love and mature relationship,” Heartfield said. Their parents had all grown close over the years.

“Our families are already married, you could say,” Powell said, adding that Ella and Aidan “had a longer, better relationship than most married couples.”

Powell described Ella as “kind-hearted, gentle, curious.” Heartfield said he could “brag for hours about what a warm and kind soul” his son had. The two of them often spent time at Aidan’s parents’ house in Hunt by the banks of the Guadalupe River.

On the evening before the river flooded, Powell said she called Ella and chatted briefly about mundane things. Ella told her mom that she was about to have burgers for dinner. Powell told her she loved her before hanging up.

“I’m so grateful I talked to her that night,” Powell said.

About nine hours later, Heartfield received a call from Aidan. It was around 4 a.m. and he had awoken to four inches of water in the house. Over the phone, Heartfield instructed the four friends to evacuate and get to higher ground. They were able to get to the back porch of the house, but Ella and Reese quickly began to lose footing as they went into the current. Aidan handed the phone to Joyce and, within a minute, the phone went dead.

“I believe Aidan went in the water to help them,” Heartfield said.

The phone call lasted about five to six minutes.

“I’m so glad I answered the call,” Heartfield said, but added: “It’s a hard call to process… it’s hard to unhear.”

On Friday morning, Powell received a call from Aidan’s mom, and she immediately drove from Beaumont to Hunt. By that afternoon, the families were already searching. Powell said she remained hopeful of finding her daughter alive until Saturday morning, when she saw what was left of the Heartfields’ house.

“There was only a slab, the entire house was gone,” she said. “There [was] furniture way high up in the trees.”

A huge cypress tree had snapped and fallen. Fragments of the house, along with pillows, furniture, a canoe and a ping pong paddle piled between tree branches along the riverbank.

“I just knew,” Powell said.

Searching for closure

Heartfield’s team has searched 25 miles of the river since Friday, nearly matching the distance of state game wardens. Already, they have recovered at least nine bodies — the daughters and sons of other parents. It is a gruesome process: trying to detect strong odors, peeling off layers of debris, wading through water, checking under downed trees.

On Thursday, he assigned groups of two to four people different search areas for the day, zeroing in on places that first responders have not covered yet. He’s meticulous. He informed his team there was a 10% chance of rain, and he has memorized the terrain by the river banks.

Aidan, Ella, Reese and Joyce’s families all banded together to search for their children. The tragedy has brought the parents closer, and Heartfield is grateful they’ve worked as a team, with each bringing their own skillset.

Heartfield himself is an attorney and has never participated in a search before, much less organizing and instructing sometimes more than 70 volunteers every day. He’s thankful that Texas EquuSearch, a search and rescue nonprofit, has helped him navigate this difficult time. Heartfield said he’s learned crucial things from EquuSearch, such as how to respectfully and efficiently report a find and how to get law enforcement on site.

Despite only getting about 2 ½ hours of sleep every night for the past several days, his deep desire for closure keeps him going.

“I didn’t realize how strong the desire is for closure after an event like this,” he said. “I think their spirit is what is channeling my energy. Because I normally don’t have this kind of energy.”

Despite having recovered Ella’s body, Powell is still in the Kerrville area helping Heartfield. It’s been nearly a week since she arrived, and she said the town has not ceased showing them love and support. She has received offers to pay for Ella’s funeral and constant offers of free food.

“Here in Kerrville, people are trying to feed us brisket. I’ve never seen so much brisket in my life,” Powell said.

The food is ever-flowing, but so is the grief, which comes in waves. Powell will take breaks from the search effort to cry throughout the day, before refocusing her energy on recovery efforts. She’s always been a “do what needs to be done” kind of person, she said.

“But now what needs to be done is I need to get back [to Beaumont] and take care of my daughter’s funeral,” she said.

KHOU reported Wednesday that Reese’s body was escorted back to Conroe by Montgomery County police so she can be laid to rest. Heartfield said Joyce’s family has a beautiful ceremony planned to honor their daughter.

While Heartfield is still meeting with volunteers every morning, he has stopped going on the Guadalupe River himself. He doesn’t want to be the person to find his son.

“I have resolved myself to a recovery and not a rescue,” he said.

Disclosure: University of Texas at San Antonio has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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