Extraordinary pictures of the La Vita Bella in Dickinson, Texas, showed seven residents sitting in wheelchairs chest deep in dirty flood water waiting to be rescued, along with their cat.
The water began coming up through the toilets at 3am on Sunday but hours later it was 4ft deep.
Medical notes floated along the surface of the water as carers frantically called for an evacuation.
Nursing home employee Tina Davis said that she ‘was on the phone with anybody except for God’.
In the end the National Guard arrived and floated the wet, half-clothed residents out on mattresses to waiting trucks.
“The house was pretty much underwater,” said an Army National Guard captain who was involved in the rescue.
In addition to the 15 patients three staff members were saved.
The picture from inside the care home was taken by owner Trudy Lampson and went viral on Twitter after being Tweeted by her son-in-law Timothy McIntosh.