HARVEY FATALITIES: The worst is confirmed after bodies of 6 family members are found in submerged van
Mona Saldivar watched from Green River Drive on a muggy Wednesday morning as authorities tugged a white work van from the murky Greens Bayou.
She’d held out hope that perhaps the van didn’t contain the bodies of her loved ones, that maybe they were safe somewhere.
Then authorities confirmed the unfathomable: The bodies of Saldivar’s four children, ages 6 to 16, and their paternal greatgrandparents were inside the van. A relative trying to transport the six away from rising floodwaters on Sunday afternoon instead drove into high water, which swept the vehicle off the road. The relative escaped the van but was unable to save the others.
“This is like the hardest thing that anybody would ever go through,” Mona Saldivar said by phone later. She declined to discuss the events that led to the tragedy.
The bodies of Belia and Manuel Saldivar, who were months shy of their 60th wedding anniversary, were found huddled together in the car’s front seat, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. Four of their greatgrandchildren were found in the back of the vehicle.
The confirmation of the six deaths Wednesday contributed to a rising number of dead or feared dead from flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Harvey. The Harris County medical examiner’s office has confirmed 18 deaths, including the six relatives.
As of Wednesday night, authorities were reporting that more than 30 people had died — and they fully expected the number to go up.
In Fort Bend County, a Katy preacher and his wife who went to check on a family member Wednesday afternoon died when they drove into floodwaters. The sheriff ’s office identified the victims as Donald Rogers, 65, and his wife, Rochelle.
Donald Rogers died a few feet from the road named after his grandfather and just down the street from his uncle’s home. That’s who he and his wife were going to check on when they steered their Toyota Tundra into high water on Pool Hill Road, a hazard that family members believe should have been better marked or blocked off.
The sheriff’s office said the couple called around 12:40 p.m. But by the time deputies were able to send officers and a helicopter, it was too late.
“This is just a remote area, and it takes time to get out here,” Maj. Chad Norvell said. Man electrocuted
Police, who spent much of Wednesday monitoring the rising crest of the nearby Brazos River and moving barricades around the county, said they simply can’t block every flooded area.
In northwest Harris County, 25-year-old Andrew Pasek died in the Bear Creek Village subdivision on Tuesday, his mother said Wednesday. She said her son was electrocuted on the way to his sister’s house in the subdivision.
Pasek’s sister and her fiancé didn’t have a carrier for their cat, so they left the cat when the neighborhood was put under voluntary evacuation. When it became clear they could be out of their home for weeks, Pasek — an animal lover with a habit of rescuing stray dogs and cats — went back with a friend around 2 p.m. Tuesday to pick up their cat. He drove his Jeep and tried to walk the rest of the way to his sister’s house due to the floodwaters but was electrocuted on the walk over. A GoFundMe page was set up Wednesday for the young man, and it has already raised more than $24,000.
In northeast Houston, four men were reportedly missing after a swollen bayou swept away their small boat.
The four were among seven men who went out Monday afternoon in an attempt to rescue neighbors in the Northshore area, according to a missing man’s wife, as well as reports by ABC-13 and Univision.
“My husband has been (in) the Wallisville and Normandy helping people get out of the houses,” Perla Jaquez wrote on Facebook on Monday evening. “Now we can’t locate him or his brothers. ... We are all very concerned.”
Family members told news stations that the men’s boat ran into Greens Bayou’s swift water near Wallisville Road and Normandy Street, then drifted toward a utility pole. All of the men reportedly jumped out.
Three were found Tuesday morning, according to ABC-13, hanging on to trees and suffering from burns after being shocked. They were treated at a local hospital. The other four men reportedly remain missing.
A hospital staff member confirmed early Wednesday that at least one of the injured men remains at the hospital but did not describe his condition.
Authorities had no details on the incident late Wednesday.
In southeastern Texas, Beaumont police on Wednesday recovered the body of a woman found floating in a residential area.
A day earlier, police there found a 3-year-old clinging to the body of her drowned mother in a rain-swollen canal after the woman tried to carry her child to safety. Police identified the mother as Colette Sulcer, 41. ‘Worst fears … realized’
On Wednesday, Orange County Judge Stephen Carlton said that two people had died Monday night in the city of Orange and that the deaths were stormrelated, according to the Associated Press. He provided no other details.
Sheriff Gonzalez said he fears the grim discoveries of additional bodies once the floodwaters retreat and the streams, rivers and bayous go back into their banks.
“Our worst fears,” Gonzalez said at the scene of the van recovery, “have been realized.”
Trying to flee the floods over the weekend, Sammy Saldivar drove his six family members up Green River Drive toward Greens Bayou as heavy rains battered the white vehicle.
But the car began receding into high water. Sammy Saldivar managed to escape and clung to a nearby tree, Gonzalez said. Deputies would hear his screams and rescue him Sunday morning.
Water had receded by Wednesday to expose the vehicle, which was partially sunk, askew in the Greens Bayou’s edge amid tall grass.
The children lived with their mother, Mona Saldivar, and attended Pasadena ISD schools.
Daisy, 6, hoped to become a teacher one day and had a great first week in Ms. Jackson’s firstgrade class at Williams Elementary. She loved princess dresses and animals, with a particular affection for the neighborhood cats she fed, according to Mona Saldivar, a 34-year-old dental assistant.
“She was bubbly, (a) social butterfly; she just talked to everybody and anybody. She would brighten up the room when she would come in the door,” her mother said.
Xavier, 8, had just started third grade at Williams Elementary. He loved swimming, turtles, family game nights and building Lego Ninjago sets.
He liked the color green, and every Halloween he dressed up as a soldier, his mother said. He greatly admired his greatgrandfather, who perished with him and was one of several military veterans in the family.
Dominic, 14, played trombone and had already had a spot on the Pasadena High School marching band. Like his little brother, he aspired to join the military and loved Legos. The boys kept their Lego collections separate, but Dominic would help his brother build.
Dominic was a rowdy, goofy jokester who was protective of his mother’s time and attention, she said. ‘Her laugh was contagious’
Devorah, 16, was a straight-A student in the 11th grade at Pasadena High School, her mother said. She loved reading and sang alto in the choir. She had talked about becoming a veterinarian.
To her mother, Devorah was like sunshine.
“She would walk into the room — her laugh was contagious. She was always joking around, and her favorite color was yellow. She was always wearing something really bright,” her mother said.
As authorities pulled the vehicle from Greens Bayou, family members embraced and held hands.
Two loved ones later thanked community members for their support as they drove away from the emergency vehicles assisting with the recovery.
Another person put his hand on a woman’s shoulder as they turned their backs from the swollen Greens Bayou to walk away.