It was supposed to be a festive Fourth of July weekend — but in less than an hour, celebration turned to catastrophe. At Blue Oak RV Park in Kerrville, Texas, Bob Canales stood helpless in the pouring rain, screaming over the roar of the Guadalupe River as it surged past him. “Throw me the baby!” he cried, voice cracking with desperation. But it was too late. The current was too fast. A family of four — including the younger brother of country singer Pat Green — vanished before his eyes.
Bob and his wife, Lorena Guillen, own the RV park and nearby Howdy’s Bar and Chill. That morning, when they realized how quickly the river was rising, they rushed to warn campers. Panic swept through the grounds as water tore across the site, ripping away RVs, cabins, and cars. Bob tried to reach John Burgess, who was stranded with his wife Julia, their two young boys, and their dog. He shouted for them to toss the children to him — a last-ditch attempt to save their lives. But the river didn’t wait.
John and Julia’s bodies were later found downstream. Their sons are still missing. Miraculously, their dog survived.
“You could hear transformers popping,” Bob recalled. “Cabins were slamming into each other like dominoes. Some people were caught in their cars, and then… they were just gone.” For Bob, the horror didn’t stop at the riverbank. His own business became a grim scene. Several victims, including their 27-year-old kitchen worker Julian Ryan, were found dead inside Howdy’s — a bar now serving as both community refuge and makeshift memorial.
The death toll from the Texas floods has risen to 132, with many still missing. For Bob, it’s the kind of devastation you never forget — not just for what was lost, but for the helplessness etched into every second of it. “There was just nothing you could do,” he said, his voice still heavy with disbelief.
Only days after the flood, Bob and Lorena reopened their restaurant — not just as a business, but as a beacon. They’ve fed first responders, sheltered the displaced, and held space for grieving families. “It’s been so important to have people return to a sense of normalcy,” Bob said. “I think people see that we’re going to survive this.”
Still, the image of the Burgess family — swept away in seconds — haunts him. “Within the span of 45 minutes,” he said quietly, “they were wiped off the planet.”
What remains now is the grief, the questions… and a man standing in the rain, still holding on to a moment he couldn’t save.
