Tom Banks' 10-year-old nephew only spent two days at Camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas, before the catastrophic flooding began.
He said water started coming into his nephew's cabin around 1 a.m. As the water got higher, the children sought higher ground on the top bunks.
"Eventually, the water got too high and the bunks started falling over, so they got onto the rafters of the cabin," Banks said.
It wasn't until hours later that the boys were able to swim out of the cabin to higher ground.
"They pretty much sheltered in place, without power or food, for probably 12 hours that day, until the river had receded enough for them to take a bus out and get reconnected with their parents," Banks said.
Banks himself attended the all-boys camp as a child, spending four summers there.
"It's really close to home. It's really surreal, seeing all the images come out," Banks said.
Banks is originally from Texas and says his nephew lives in Austin.
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What we know about the Texas flooding victims
About 2 hours away from La Junta is Camp Mystic, where the storm claimed the lives of 27 campers and counselors.
Waters rose by 26 feet in the Guadalupe River in less than an hour.
But, among the devastation are stories of resilience.
"You look at extraordinary stories, stories of Eagle Scouts pulling campers out of harm's way," Texas Senator Ted Cruz said. "I was just hearing a story of one counselor whose head was right at the water, holding up two mattresses with campers on those mattresses."
Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian aid group based in Los Angeles, has three crews on the ground assisting in recovery on the ground. After arriving on Monday, they've learned that nearly 500 families are in need of help.
"We will do debris removal, trees, things that have been washed out. We'll use heavy equipment and sawyers to be able to remove that, and we also know we'll likely transition into helping the survivors by mucking out their flooded homes," said Art Delacruz, CEO of Team Rubicon.
Despite the terrifying escape, Banks says his nephew is in good spirits.