Click to watch video | Raw video of Georgetown rescue attempt

The dramatic video showed an elderly couple fighting for life as the water rushed around them. Rescuers near Austin couldn't save 80-year-old Fred List.

Crews got a life vest on his wife, but he was swept away.

"I think he knew he wasn't going to make it," Kathy List said later. "'He said to me, "Kathy, I was so lucky to have you for a wife for all these years.'"

It was just one of many rescue attempts in Texas over the last few days.

KHOU

The water rescue teams say no two rescues are the same.

In Houston Thursday morning, crews believed they might have to make another. There were reports of someone in the swift water and an empty kayak along the banks.

Those who take part in often-dramatic rescues tell us a swift water rescue is more than just a fight with the current. Sometimes, when they get to the victim, the job becomes even harder.

"They'll make contact with you and they give up because they've been fighting the water the whole time," explained Capt. Keith Bobbit, an HFD rescue coordinator. "It's cold, they're getting hypothermic so we really have to make good contact to get them into the boat."

It takes every bit of training and rigorous swimming.

It is hardest when the water wins.

It is never the same twice they tell us. Sometimes deep water like the bayou, sometimes swift water over concrete that makes standing nearly impossible.

On this day in Houston, the call about the empty canoe was apparently a false alarm. Rescue crews found no one.

But they know there will be other times.

"Most of the times we're just tired and kinda grateful we just got back," said Capt. Bobbitt.