SAN ANTONIO – After losing their stepfather in the Hill Country floods, one family is still praying their mother, who was swept away with him in their RV, is still alive.
Penny Ferguson, 77, and her husband, Bruce Ferguson, 83, loved being outdoors like people.
“My mom is such a sweet and spry woman,” said Rachael Lynn, her daughter and a retired U.S. Coast Guard member. “They lived in their RV at the HTR RV Park year-round. They’re big camping people. Big fishers. They were in the unofficial welcome committee for anyone who came to camp in the area. They knew everyone.”
Ryan Schomber, the couple’s son and an active first responder, was visiting from out of state with his teen daughter.
They planned to celebrate the holiday.
Thursday night into early Friday morning on Independence Day, Schomber said they saw a lot of lightning.
“There was a ton of lightning between midnight and 3 a.m., but we didn’t hear anything about flooding at that time,” he said. “We just knew it was a thunderstorm, but things seemed to be dissipating.”
He said he and his daughter began dozing off in their cabin, which was a little down the street from his parents’ RV.
“Around 5 a.m., it was still dark,” he said. “We heard two honks, and then we got an alert indicating a flood. This happens quite a bit in this area, but we knew we had to get dressed. The water was still low at that point. It had not reached the bank yet. I went to put some pants on and I came back to look, the water had reached the roadway.”
That is when he got on the phone to call his mom to wake them up and prepare them to go to safety.
“I called my mom, and I told her, ‘We need to leave now.’ When I hung up, the water was over the steps at our cabin,” he said. “I told my daughter to get her backpack, and we took off to the cabin next to us, which was higher ground. When I looked back, that is when I saw my mother’s RV had toppled. I didn’t want to tell the family, but it had crashed. I just had hope that there was a possibility there was a sign of life still.”
“I just hope they had some air bubbles,” Lynn said as she got emotional. “I am hoping the RVs are all going to be recovered and that people are just stranded in trees or something. I’m hopeful.”
Since that day, the siblings have been searching in Kerrville, utilizing their first responder skills in the process.
“We have plucked people out of rooftops and attics, trees,” Lynn said. “They are sitting on top of buildings, doing anything they can do to get out of (the) water. A whole week has gone by, and we are still rescuing people. People can survive so much.”
Sadly, the family did receive news that Bruce’s body had been recovered.
They are praying that it is not the reality of their mother or anyone else who is still missing.
If you have seen Mrs. Penny Ferguson, please call 830-258-1111, a number first responders have listed for those with missing family members.
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