2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15
A terrible tragedy has mourned a Hispanic family in Houston who saw six of its members lose their lives due to the floods that hit Texas after the devastating hurricane Harvey, which in total has already claimed 14 fatalities.
The death stunned four children from the Saldívar family and their two great-grandparents as they tried to flee the rising water level that has turned much of Houston into a swamp.
One of their great-uncles, Samuel Saldívar, had come looking for them in a van when a blow of water overturned the vehicle and threw it into a stream of water, from which only the driver could save himself.
"Sam called my husband and said, 'They've disappeared,'" Virginia Saldívar, Samuel's in- laws sister, told the AP agency. "My husband dropped the phone and started screaming."
The victims have been identified as Manuel Saldívar, 84, and his wife Belia, 81, as well as the little Dominic Saldívar, 14; Xavier, 8; Daisy, 6; and Davy, 16.
The local Fox 26 channel said that some witnesses saw a rescue team arrive in the area, but it was too late to rescue the six victims, who disappeared in the turbulent waters when the van sank.
According to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, heads of the Harris County sheriff confirmed that a family of six members had lost their lives when their vehicle sank after crossing a bridge and encountering a blow of water.
Virginia Saldívar said that the authorities have explained to them that they will not be able to search for the bodies until the waters are removed.
The Pasadena Independent School District regretted the deaths of the minors. "The Pasadena Independent School District has learned with great regret that four students and two of their great-grandparents were swept away by the flooding at Green Bayou while trying to escape the waters of Harvey," it said in a statement.
Friends of the Saldívar family have created a GoFundMe account to pay for funerals once their mortal remains are recovered.
More than 11 trillion gallons of water are estimated to have fallen in Northeast Texas since Harvey made landfall last Saturday on the Gulf Coast of Mexico and caused the largest natural disaster in the United States since Katrina in 2005.
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