Families Search and Wait for Word

Families suffered excruciating waits on Saturday for word about those missing in the Texas floods, with some relatives conducting their own searches. Officials announced the death toll was up to 32, including 14 children. About two dozen children were still missing as of Sunday afternoon. Rescuers were searching for survivors by boat, from the air, and foot along the Guadalupe River.

• Searching: Ty Badon rushed to the area from Beaumont. His daughter had been on the phone, telling a friend's parents that two of her friends had been swept away, when the line went dead. Now he's walking the banks of the Guadalupe River calling out, "Joyce Catherine." His daughter is a 21-year-old architecture student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, CNN reports. "She's a beautiful girl," Badon said. "Couldn't ask for a better daughter."

• One search ends: Brian Eads, 52, had been looking for word of his wife, Katheryn, at an emergency shelter, per the New York Times. On Sunday, he learned that she'd died. "We both got swept away, and then I lost her," said Eads, who survived by holding onto a tree.
• 20-mile odyssey: Carl Jeter said he heard a woman screaming early Friday morning outside his home in Center Point. He found her sitting in the branches of a tree above rushing floodwaters, per the Times. The young woman was camping with her family 20 miles upstream when she was swept away. "She was dodging RVs and refrigerators and all kinds of things in the river," Jeter said. "She crossed four dams and went under bridges to get here." The woman remained hospitalized on Saturday, he said.
• Reunited: Elizabeth Lester sobbed when she saw her daughter, who was clutching a small teddy bear and a book, per the AP. "My kids are safe," Lester said, "but knowing others are still missing is just eating me alive."