A Pennsylvania police chief says a pregnant woman and her nine-year-old son have been found dead in a car that was swept away by floodwaters.
Douglass Township Police Chief John Dzurek explained how the car was swept down the Manatawny Creek for about a half-mile on Thursday night, while the woman was on the phone with emergency officials. The call then dropped.
The woman, who has been identified as 31-year-old Pam Vera Snyder along with her son, Preston, told authorities that water was rushing inside her Mazda 3 vehicle and the pair were unable to escape.
Pam Vera Snyder, 31, and her nine-year-old son Preston were found dead after their car was washed away by flash floods
Family friends and relatives were seen holding hands on a bridge close to where the tragedy occurred on Thursday night
The mother and her son were trapped in their car as flash floods hit the region
The waters came without warning. Snyder was on the phone with dispatch for 45 minutes
The woman was on the phone with dispatch for 49 minutes while rescue efforts were underway, but the rising water prevented the crews from getting to the mother and her son.
Emergency services said the woman was stranded under a railroad bridge and told a dispatcher that she and her son were stuck in the car with water rushing in.
Her phone was pinged to determine her exact location. Operators were on the phone with her for about 45 minutes, trying to calm her.
Fire crews and a water rescue team were unable to reach the stranded vehicle.
Rescue crews worked long into the night as they searched for the mother and son’s car
Flattened bushes on a river show where the car passed by brushing past anything in its path
Numerous flooded roadways made it impossible for emergency teams to reach the scene.
A firefighter was put in contact with the expectant mom and was able to stay on the phone with her for several minutes before losing contact.
After searching for nearly five hours, emergency workers found their bodies in the car in a tributary. The coroner’s office was called to the scene soon after.
Early on Friday morning, crews were still on the scene trying to recover the vehicle that remained in the floodwaters.
Berks County saw several inches of rain on Thursday, causing creeks to flood and roadways to shut down for hours.
On Friday morning, crews were still present dealing with the cleanup
A water rescue team was on site but they were too late to save the lives of the mother and son
Rescuers in the township said it was among the worst days they could remember in some time
‘When I was driving through the waters myself, I could feel my SUV, which sits pretty high, wanting to drift away,’ Dzurek said. ‘I was able to get off a little dirt lane, look down and I couldn’t see anything, got spun around and tore back through before I became part of it.’
Snyder and her son were pronounced dead at the scene by deputies from the Berks County coroners’ office.
Snyder was seven months pregnant. She was also planning to get married in September.
She was on her way home to Boyertown when she was caught in the flash flooding.
Fire & Rescue worked along side River Rescue teams as they worked to recover the bodies
Locals were left bewildered by the evening’s events after what occurred in their township
Family and community members said Snyder was beloved and will be dearly missed.
‘They said she was just a wonderful, wonderful human being, just a wonderful sister and daughter and fiancee,’ Boyertown Salvation Army Lt. Joseph Smith said to NBC 10. ‘She was just well loved.’
‘Just about every roadway in this township was under water, so people were getting so far and turning around,’ Dzurek said. ‘Pretty much every road in this township either has trees down, has destruction or was under water.’
It wasn’t until around 9:45pm that a search party in a boat found the missing car.
Crews were able to see through the sunroof in the car and found the two victims inside.
Family members then began arriving at the scene where they embraced one another and began crying on the bridge.
Chief Deputy Coroner Jonn M. Hollenbach said on Friday morning to The Mercury that autopsies will not be performed because all evidence indicates they drowned.
‘Tough evening for a local family and some local first responders this evening in Douglass,’ the Douglass Township Constable’s Office wrote on Facebook.
‘Tragedy struck and Mother Nature’s fury took away an expecting mother and child far too soon.’
Locals in the area manage to catch the deluge on their cellphone cameras
The torrent of water lasted for several hours turning roads into rivers
A number of other vehicles were washed away but their occupants managed to escape injury
‘Everybody kept everyone abreast of what was going on and what the next step was going to be,’ Dzurek said. ‘I use the word ‘stressful’ because Officer Micah Long and I were the only two on to begin with, and the township was falling apart. Cars in water here, cars in water there, trees down here, people stuck between two areas of flooding and can’t go anywhere.’
‘It came up pretty fast and I heard that there was a woman that was stuck in a car with a baby,’ Phil Abbott, who lives in the area, said to ABC News.
‘It was up to the road and was covered here. … The guys were heading up by my barn and they said there was a woman stuck in a car with a baby. They weren’t sure if she was down at the corner or where she was.’
Douglass Township is northwest of Philadelphia, around 20 miles east of Reading.
The National Weather Service had previously issued a flash flood emergency for parts of eastern Pennsylvania after more than 6 inches of rain dumped onto the area, flooding roads and trapping motorists in cars.
Officials urged residents to move to higher ground describing it as ‘an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.’
The Reading Eagle says someone had to be rescued from the second floor of a home, and several disabled cars were stranded on roads with drivers needing rescue.
In North Huntingdon, a sinkhole opened up behind a daycare.
People were driving the wrong way on an exit ramp because a stretch of Route 28 was closed.