Young woman talks about surviving disaster in Galveston Bay

Monday marks two weeks since a shrimp boat capsized in the Houston Ship Channel after an unexpected storm. The crew included members of a well-known fishing family who became trapped as the boat took on water.

Ronnie Galloway, Jr. 42, started shrimping at 18 and knew the water well. His father Ronald Galloway Sr. has been shrimping for more than four decades.

On Monday, August 18, the crew on his Mr. Anthony 41-foot-boat got caught in an unexpected storm on Cedar Bayou near the Houston Ship Channel. The captain never made it off the boat but his 13-year-old son Cody, deckhand Emmanuel and 19-year-old daughter Sabrina all survived.

Sabrina recalls how pretty it was as they made their way back to the docks that afternoon. "Dad, goes 'wow that is some really pretty lightning.'" A few minutes later the crew was in trouble.

"I saw a lightning flash and then I looked over my shoulder out the back door and the boat was leaning," Sabrina said.

As the water poured in the Captain and father told his crew members to grab a window as the boat turned on its side. Cody and Emmanuel were able to break windows and get out but Sabrina spent hours trapped in a compartment.

Captain Galloway would never leave his boat again as the young woman remembers fighting through the water and says, "When I came back up, I didn't see my dad again."

The University of Houston student describes her father as selfless.

"He was always putting the family first and dad always told me first and foremost I want to be a daddy," she said.

She describes his love for her mother Jessica as priceless.

"My mom and dad had a love that I could never even imagine finding," she said.

And adds that her time in the water is something she is never going to forget. As she waited for help she was surrounded by the smell of fuel which had released from the tanks on the vessel. She says her faith is what helped her.

"(It) helped me find peace with what I thought was going to be my own death," said Sabrina.

She showed us a small piece of metal she has carried with her since that day.

"I grabbed it and haven't let go of it since," she said.

Her brother Cody had more than 30 stitches after breaking a window out. The deckhand Emanuel Decero Lopez Hernandez also had injuries to his hands.

Sabrina was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. The sophomore elementary education major went back to school at the University of Houston this week. She started a blog called "Shrimper Girl" to share her story.

Ronnie Jr. and Jessica Galloway have five children.

A "Gofundme" account has been set up under Galloway Family Fund.