The family of a Texas woman who died saving a teenager being swept away in catastrophic flash flooding has filed what is thought to be the first lawsuit over the disaster that claimed 118 lives.
Probation officer Jayda Floyd, 22, from Odessa, was staying at the luxury HTR TX Hill Country Resort in Kerrville with her police officer fiancé Bailey Martin, 23, and his family when the Guadalupe River burst its banks in the early hours of July 4.
According to her family’s $1 million lawsuit, the RV park failed to warn guests or evacuate them as floodwaters surged more than 20 feet in two hours, according to a lawsuit obtained by KSAT.
The historic flooding swallowed entire families and left 26 campers missing at that same site- more than any other location.
Floyd managed to push her fiancé’s teenage stepsiblings onto the roof of their RV—saving their lives.
However, she and Martin were washed away and died.
When warnings finally came, they were from other campers and not resort staff, the lawsuit states.
‘Survivors say they woke to the sound of a car horn, then scrambled to escape as the water rose from ankle-deep to waist-deep in minutes,’ the filing reads.
The estate of Jayda Floyd, 22, have filed what is believed to be the first lawsuit related to the July 4 flooding on the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas
Floyd was swept away and died alongside her police officer fiancé, Bailey Martin, 23
Despite being aware of the risk of flooding, including catastrophic flooding, the defendants continued to do business just feet from the Guadalupe River, Floyd family lawyers allege.
Floyd worked with the Ector County Juvenile Probation Department as a probation officer.
She was working on her master’s in psychology at the University of Texas-Permian Basin, with the hope of helping at-risk youth.
Her relatives are asking for $1 million from the different entities connected to the riverside recreational land.
The Davis Companies Inc., investors of the HTR TX Hill Country; HTR Kerrville, which owns the land of the resort; Blue Water Development, believed to be the company that operates the resort; and Ilana Callahan, the general manager of the campground are all named in the legal filing.
HTR did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyDail.com.
A telephone recording greets callers, letting them know that the camp is closed for future reservations.
More people went missing from the HTR RV park than form another other single location impacted by the flooding, reported the Kerr County Lead.
Floyd and her fiancé died together, however, his family is not currentlu involved in the lawsuit
HTR TX Hill Country RV Park in Kerrville, Texas is currently closed, a telephone recording informs callers
Jayda Floyd worked for the Ector County Juvenile Probation department and was also seeking her master’s degree in Odessa, Texas
Campers were overwhelmed when floodwaters surged more than 20 feet in less than two hours at HTR, local officials told the paper.
Most of guests at the park were out-of-towners, and were likely unfamiliar with the Guadalupe and its tendency to flood.
Many had traveled to Hill Country for the holiday weekend from other cities in the state like Dallas, League City, San Angelo and San Antonio to catch a fireworks extravaganza staged by the city of Kerrville over the river
Entire families went missing from the site.
In other cases, some people were able to make it out while those they were camping with were trapped or swept away.
