- Authorities say girl drowned after stepping into a hole on the bottom of a river
- Tragedy took place in Houston’s San Jacinto River on Sunday
- The mother had trouble swimming at a beach at Magnolia Gardens Park
Authorities believe a 12-year-old girl drowned as she tried to save her mother who was struggling in a river near Houston that has become more dangerous since Hurricane Harvey.
Harris County Sheriff’s Capt. Don Stanton says the girl disappeared Sunday after apparently stepping into a 10-foot-deep hole on the bottom of the San Jacinto River.
A man tried to find her but couldn’t swim down that far. Marine division sheriff’s deputies eventually retrieved the girl’s body.
Harris County Sheriff’s Capt. Don Stanton says the girl disappeared Sunday after apparently stepping into a 10-foot-deep hole on the bottom of the San Jacinto River (above)
Her name hasn’t been released.
The mother got into trouble near a beach at Magnolia Gardens Park.
Beach signs warn that no lifeguard is on duty.
The mom made it out safely.
Stanton says Hurricane Harvey-related floods changed the river last summer, carving new deep areas right next to the reconfigured shoreline.
‘Where the little girl was found today, before the storm, the beach was about 40 yards wide,’ Stanton told KTRK-TV.
‘Now, it’s about 140 yards wide. You used to be able to walk out a ways. Now you walk out a couple of feet, and you go in about 11 or 12 feet of water.
‘It’s like that now all the way from the Lake Houston dam downstream.’
‘They were all swimming and all of a sudden the mom started to drown, so she jumped in to help her,’ the 12-year-old’s aunt told KPRC-TV.
‘They were able to get the mom out, but the 12-year-old drowned.’
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