A family slept as Texas floods raged. A stranger screamed, and saved their lives.

When Matthew Crowder got to work at Texas Paintball around 4 a.m. on July 5, the floodwaters had already begun to rise.

Relentless rain late July 3 and early July 4 triggered historic flash floods, which have wreaked havoc across central Texas and killed at least 80 people.

He noticed the water was encircling a nearby home, so Crowder called 911. "That's when everything went south, real quick," Crowder said.

The water swelled rapidly, so Crowder jumped into action and screamed to rouse whoever was in the home. Inside, Chrissy Eliashar's son heard the commotion and woke her up.

Eliashar quickly gathered her three kids and a family friend who was sleeping over, all under the age of 12, and the four dogs inside the house and headed to the porch, where she watched helplessly as her car floated away. Crowder told her to try escaping through their backyard.

"That had already become a lake," she said. "So then I'm really panicking."

Crowder, who was clinging to a nearby chain-link fence, grew even more worried as the storm roared, nearby trees snapped, and the house creaked eerily. He yelled for the family to make their way to him.

Eliashar and the kids waded into the fast-moving, knee-deep water.

"My daughter actually fell and lost her shoe and nearly lost her life," she said. "My son grabbed her arm and picked her up, and we were able to just keep walking just a few more paces."

'Worst feeling I think I've ever experienced'

Crowder, too, was briefly swept away by the floodwaters and injured his back and ankle. But he said seeing Eliashar's child slip was the most harrowing moment of the entire ordeal.

"That kid getting swept away, like genuinely, I thought that that was it," he said. "That was the worst feeling I think I've ever experienced in my life."

Finally, Eliashar's family was able to take refuge in her father's pickup. Crowder pulled them out of the vehicle one by one and took them to a neighbor's yard.

Eliashar's father, a 75-year-old Vietnam veteran who lives in a trailer on their property, was also able to escape.

Eliashar said police were able to drive the family to higher ground, where they waited until a friend took them in. The next day, she returned to find their home completely washed off its foundation.

"It's completely destroyed," she said. "The floors are buckled. It's covered in mud. The waterline is to about the waist inside."

'He really saved us'

Still, Eliashar is grateful to be alive and credits Crowder with making it possible.

"I'm so grateful that he screamed and was able to wake us up and be that guide to safety for us," she said. "He really saved us."

Though devastating, the disaster has brought out the best in the community, prompting many friends, neighbors and strangers to undertake similar acts of kindness and bravery, Crowder said as he helped clean up the area on July 6. More than $36,000 has been raised on GoFundMe to help the Eliashar family rebuild.

"When these things happen to people, it makes them see how helping people, even the biggest or smallest ways, is so important," Crowder said.