A 29-year-old man and 20-year-old woman are thankful to be alive.
Their boat drifted away from them as they took a dip in the middle of Lake Travis .
They swam hard, but couldn't catch up with the boat.
Doug Girkin
said "I was in my office, I heard my wife scream and there was just this
young girl, hysterical."
Doug Gurkin and his family got a big
surprise late Wednesday evening when Ashley Singley came knocking on
their door. She was frantic and looking for help to save her friend,
Josh Walters, drifting alone in the middle of Lake Travis.
Girkin
said, "This is one of the first times we've had something so close that
I was sure we'd have a tragic end."
"I definitely didn't want
to die alone," survivor Ashley Singley said. "I never screamed like that
in my whole life. I was using my whole body to scream and yelling,
trying, when boats were going by I was trying to wave them down but they
didn't see me. That's when I knew that by screaming I was just gonna
tire my body out."
Instead, she knew the only way she could make
it to shore was to calm down. And thankfully she did make it, worried
about her friend Josh still floating in the water.
Emergency crews
completed an exhausting search to find him, they almost gave up hope.
Assistant Chief Mark Warren with the Pedernales Fire Department
said, "About 15 minutes after we got there, about an hour into the
incident, we could just see arms out in the middle of the lake. We could
just barely see arms waving. He was at the end of his energy level. He
was struggling."
Warren continued, "It's an amazing feat for him
to stay above water for that long. He was thankful to us and I think to
God, because he got a little help yesterday afternoon."
And at
first Josh refused treatment through EMS, but had to eventually go in
and be treated for exhaustion and dehydration. He is still in the
hospital recovering.
Ashley is back in San Antonio with
her family tonight. She says she's still sore from all the swimming, but
overall she will be fine.
Emergency crews were able to retrieve
the boat as well.
