Laura McComb was on vacation with her husband, Jonathan McComb, and their two children, 6-year-old Andrew and 4-year-old Leighton for the Memorial Day weekend, 2015, when the home they were staying in along the Blanco River in Wimberley began to flood. The McComb family was staying with 71-year-old Sue Carey and her husband, Ralph High Carey, 73. The couple was also welcoming their daughter, Michelle Carey-Charba, 43, son-in-law, William Randall Charba, 42, and their 6-year-old grandson, William. All nine were present in the home when the flash flooding began. Newly released 911 calls detail the horrifying moments before the home was swept from its foundation as the frantic callers inform dispatch that they are “running out of breathing room.” Eight people in the home died in the flooding, The only survivor was Jonathan McComb.
“I prayed quite a bit going down the river,” he said. “Even as we were together, we prayed, and by myself, I prayed.” The terrifying scene in the dark of night 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,'” McComb told us. “I said, ‘Take me home, I am going to Heaven,’ and I just went limp underwater.” Somehow, he held on. Badly battered, with broken ribs and a collapsed lung, McComb made it to a beach, scaled a cliff, and reached a house. “Where I got out was either 9 or 12 miles down the river,” he said. They never found the body of his daughter.
His first dream about his family since he lost them was vivid. They were in a pastoral paradise when his daughter ran up to him. “She said, ‘We didn’t make it, Daddy. You did. We got picked up by a man in the river — and it was Jesus. And we are in Heaven.’ And I woke up immediately and I looked for them and knew they weren’t there, and tried to get back in that dream. That was a big dream for me. I pray to have that dream every night before I go to bed.”
Jim has kept his faith strong through it all. The support and encouragement of fellow believers have been a great help. “That they started a water well in India on behalf of Laura, Andrew, and Leighton, is very meaningful,” McComb said. That water well came about through the efforts of a mutual friend. I’ll tell you about the water well and our part in it in the next blog. But isn’t it ironic that a disaster from too much water led to providing a well for a place that didn’t have enough water!
Revelation 22:1-2 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Thank God for the life He has given you and your loved ones. Thank Him also for the assurance you have of those you know who were Christians and are now in His presence! Thank Him for being a God that brings blessing our of tragedy!
INDIA UPDATE: We leave for India on Friday. Plans are all in place. Many pastors are expressing their joy at our coming and looking forward to the conferences and all they bring (teaching, worship, fellowship, books, encouragement, etc.)
PLEASE PRAY for Jim McComb and that God will use this tragedy for His glory. Romans 8:28 is still in the Bible!
Pray for us as we make final preparations for our trip to India and for Pastor Moses as he finalizes details there. Pray God’s angels would go ahead and prepare the way for God to minister in power. Pray for protection for all involved as well.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Google Jim McComb or go to
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/texas-news/2015/10/22/man-who-lost-his-wife-children-and-close-friends-in-wimberley-floods-living-his-faith/74423012/