What started out as a lovely vacation for Rob Lowe and his family in France quickly turned into a nightmare.

The 50-year-old actor and his family were staying in a house in Grasse, France, when heavy downpours caused rapidly moving flood waters to rage through the first floor of their vacation home. The floodwaters rose so high, the family needed to be evacuated.

“That’s the first floor of our house submerged,” Lowe’s son Johnny captioned on an Instagram post that has since been removed. “Scariest hour or so of my life.”

Lowe also shared a photo of the rapidly moving water, which was “right outside the house,” he wrote. “Was twice as high at the worst, just before sunrise.”

Local officials told People magazine the Lowes had just experienced “the biggest storm of the year.”

“Water rising like that can be terrifying,” an official told the magazine. “There’s only one rescue station in Grasse, and this storm required assistance from several other regional units. We were called out on a lot of emergency rescues yesterday.”

Lowe’s son expressed his gratitude on behalf of the family for the emergency responders.

Thank you to the fireman that saved us from this nightmare. Happy for us all to be safe, thoughts to others. pic.twitter.com/NWOdtMsAmj

— Johnowen Lowe (@Johnny_L0we) June 25, 2014

Looks like the family got right back to enjoying each other and their vacation. Johnny returned to snapping pics from the south of France a day later.

The family has been on a European vacation, with stops in London, Cannes and Spain, to celebrate Johnny’s high school graduation. Here are some pics from the vacation before the storm hit in Grasse.

Image via Wikimedia Commons