CORSICANA, Texas – Two toddlers swept away inside a stalled car were found dead Saturday, bringing to five the number of people killed in north Texas floods during weekend storms.
Police said the toddlers were in their father’s car, which was swept away just after midnight Friday after it stalled on a bridge in Corsicana. The children’s father was trying to pull them from the vehicle when it was carried away, police said.
The body of a man whose vehicle was swept against a guardrail by rising waters also was found Saturday. The vehicle’s passenger got out safely, police said.
In Fort Worth, a 17-year-old mother and her 2-year-old son died Friday night after she tried to drive across a flooded road, said fire department spokesman Lt. Kent Worley. The woman’s 18-month-old son, who was also presumed dead, had not been found by Saturday afternoon.
Worley said the woman apparently stopped at the crossing but decided to drive across after a van passed her and made it safely through the water. Her car was swept down a drainage ditch that empties into a creek and was caught in trees about 100 yards downstream.
Johnny Campbell, 22, wrapped a tow chain around his waist and had three people hold it as he waded through waist-deep water toward the car.
“I saw her banging on the window and screaming for someone to help her,” Campbell told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “When I got to the car, I touched her hand, but water swept the car away, down into the creek.”
Storms pushed into the Houston area Saturday morning, bringing hail and at least one tornado.
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