Six family members die in van trapped in flood caused by Harvey

As the flood water caused by Hurricane Harvey is subsiding, tragic incidents of death and destruction have started surfacing. On Wednesday, police in Houston said that they have recovered the bodies of six family members whose van was swept away in flooding which was caused by Harvey over the weekend.

The victims included Manuel and Belia Saldivar and four of their great-grandchildren who were between the ages of six and 16 years. The victims were trying to escape the rising flood waters when they got trapped in the van and died there.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said that the family’s relatives returned to their home after the water started subsiding and saw the van as it became visible. They then alerted the police who came to the spot.

“We were able to retrieve the van, pull it out of the water,” he said. “We have a total confirmed six dead here at the scene inside this van.”

“Our worst fears have been realised,” he said.

According to details provided by a family member named Rick Salvidar, his brother Sammy Salvidar was driving the van at that time when it became stuck in muddy water on Sunday morning and started floating away in the current. Sammy was able to climb out of the driver’s seat but he was not able to pull out the rest of his family members.

“The bad thing is he said he kept hearing the kids screaming,” Saldivar told television station KHOU. “That’s what he’s hearing in his head over and over.”

When police officers arrived at the scene, they found the rest of the family members dead in the van.

So far 30 people have died due to the storm and this number is expected to climb as the floodwaters subside.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Aug 31 2017. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.