SAN ANTONIO – Father’s Day for Carlos Quintanilla this year was bittersweet.
“I was so happy and I was joyful to spend another Father’s Day with my kids,” Quintanilla said. “But I was sad hearing some people lost their fathers and their husbands, and then later on that night, hearing the thunder and watching the lightning, it was a little traumatic.”
Quintanilla was one of about a dozen people whose vehicle was swept away by floodwaters last week. It happened on Thursday near Loop 410 and Perrin Beitel.
He was one of the only survivors.
“We were going, and just within a matter of seconds (the water) went from tire height to my window,” Quintanilla said. “A rush of water started coming in, and at that moment I was like ‘OK, I gotta get out of here.’”
Quintanilla made it out of his truck and clung to a tree to survive. He later jumped to the bank and was taken to the hospital. He came back later on Thursday to see if he could grab anything from his vehicle, but when he next arrived, it was upside down in the middle of Beitel Creek.
“I lost my truck and I lost my tools,” Quintanilla said. “It’s hard to recollect everything I had in there.”
“Because it was supposed to be another day,” KSAT’s Avery Everett said.
“It was just supposed to be another day. Just, you know, go to work, do my thing, come home,” Quintanilla said.
Quintanilla supports his family, and that’s why he’s trying to fundraise and find a way forward.
“They’re everything,” Quintanilla said. “I love them.”
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