Memorial Day weekend flood survivor mourns wife and kids

A man who lost his wife and two children when Memorial Day weekend flooding swept away a house in Wimberley still wears his wedding ring and wonders how he survived.

Jonathan McComb, of Corpus Christi, told WFAA-TV of Dallas-Fort Worth that he prayed while being carried miles downstream by the rain-swollen Blanco River.

He’s recovered from broken ribs and a collapsed lung, but he still thinks about being caught up in the fast-moving water and believes his family is in heaven.

“I prayed quite a bit going down the river,” McComb said in an interview that aired Thursday. “Even as we were together, we prayed, and by myself, I prayed.”

He told WFAA of a terrifying scene in the dark of night that got worse when their floating house hit a bridge and then began to fall apart.

“Not a day goes by that you don’t think about it,” McComb said.

“At one point underwater, I just said, ‘I am done.’ I said, ‘Take me home, I am going to heaven,’ and I just went limp underwater,” McComb said.

The body of his 4-yearold daughter, Leighton, remains missing. Backpacks belonging to her and her 6-year-old brother, Andrew, still hang on hooks at the family’s house. His wife, Laura, was also killed in the flooding.

“It keeps the memory alive,” McComb said to WFAA. “I don’t know what I would do without the memories.”

He somehow survived the experience, making it to a beach and scaling a cliff to reach a house. A stranger later placed a marker at the spot, dedicating the stone to the McComb family.

McComb displays numerous family photos at the home he still shares with their dog, Maggie.

“We were the family with the camera — pictures everywhere,” he said. “Lots of love in here ... lots of love and happiness.”

The body of another boy swept away by floodwaters, William Charba, 6, has not been found.

A ceremony was held Thursday evening, along the Blanco River in Wimberley, to remember the dozen people who died in the Central Texas floods.