A father who died in the Texas flooding tragedy got swept away by rising waters while “holding tight” to his babies, the owner of the RV park where his family were staying has said.

John Burgess was among the victims of the tragic flooding in Texas Hill Country on the Fourth of July after the Guadalupe River rose around 26 feet in approximately 45 minutes, local media outlet KWTX reported.

The death toll has continued to rise since Friday, and the Associated Press reported that the total number of victims now stands at at least 104. The Kerr County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook on Monday, July 7, that 84 bodies had been recovered from Kerr County so far, including 56 adults and 28 children.

Burgess, who previously graduated from the China Spring High School in the Waco area, had been staying with his wife, Julia Anderson Burgess, and their two boys in an RV camp in the area when the flooding occurred, per KWTX.
Lorena Guillen, owner of the Blue Oak RV Park in Kerr County, recalled Burgess holding on to a tree while trying to cling to his sons, per The New York Post.

“My husband was in the water trying to ask them, ‘Please throw me your baby!’ The man was holding tight to his babies, and he just got swept away,” Guillen said, according to the outlet.

Guillen confirmed the family had been at the RV park to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, The Post reported.

According to KWTX, the Burgess family, who live in Liberty, were in Hill Country to pick up their eldest daughter from a camp, which hadn’t been affected by the flooding. The daughter is safe, per the outlet.

According to NBC and Fox-affiliated station WLUC, the bodies of John and Julia have been recovered, but their sons remain missing. KWTX also reported that their sons are unaccounted for.

“The neighbors around here, we’ve all been praying and everything, and it’s just a sad, sad situation. I just can’t hardly believe it,” neighbor Winnie Taylor told WLUC.

“The kids were so excited to be here,” Guillen said, adding that all 28 of the RVs parked at the camp on Friday morning had been destroyed, per The Post.

“We heard people screaming throughout the night,” she said, adding, “The cabins from the RV park next door came floating, and they were getting smashed against the trees.”

“‘Help me! Help me!’ — that was the main thing. You heard a lot of screaming, it was just too much,” Guillen said, according to The Post.
Guillen told NBC-affiliated station WOAI that “everything was gone, every single RV and vehicle, it was gone, they got washed away,” after the waters rose quickly.

“The screaming was unbearable,” she recalled to the outlet.

Guillen also told MSNBC of the tragedy, “It’s surreal, to be honest with you. It’s so hard for people to understand the devastation that we have suffered.”

A GoFundMe set up by Guillen to raise money to help rebuild the Blue Oak RV Park had raised over $1,200 as of Tuesday, July 8. PEOPLE has reached out to the Blue Oak RV Park for comment.

To learn how to help support the victims and recovery efforts from the Texas floods, click here.