Five people died in an Ohio river after multiple people entered the water in an attempt to help a person who was struggling to swim, police said Monday.
The group was together on Sunday along the Scioto River in the Columbus suburb of Powell when one of them went into the river to swim.
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Two siblings believed to have drowned
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“That’s when the tragedy started to occur,” Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer said at a news conference. He said others who jumped in to help also began to struggle.
A driver called emergency services after encountering a distressed child from the group running along a riverside road searching for help.
On Sunday, rescue workers found two women in the water, who were pronounced dead at the hospital. Three men were found in the river on Monday, Tracy Whited, a spokesperson for the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, told The Associated Press.
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Data from a U.S. Geological Survey water gauge at the nearby dam showed the water was flowing at more than double the average rate on Sunday, at 350 cubic feet (10 cubic metres) per second.
The child who ran for help has been placed in the care of family services along with another child under the age of 10, authorities said. Balzer police said they were working to notify relatives of the victims and warned that people who congregate near water should take additional precautions.
“Know your skill level before you get in the water,” Balzer said.
“Are you a confident swimmer?” he added. “Make sure you have other people around in case something goes wrong to notify someone.”
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The Ohio incident happened two days after five members of the same family were killed in southern Utah when flash flooding swept through canyons while they were on a one-day hiking excursion.
The victims were a captain with the Provo, Utah, fire department, his wife, and their sons, according to fire officials. A daughter who was not on the trip survived.
“It is believed the family fell victim to flooding caused by heavy rains,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The deaths in Ohio and Utah come amid a wave of severe flooding and powerful weather systems sweeping across the U.S.
Last week, NBC News and The Guardian reported that two people had been killed in flash floods in central Texas, an area still recovering from devastating floods last year, including from a deluge that decimated Camp Mystic, a Christian girls camp where 28 children and staff died.
The Carolinas, southeast Virginia and the Tennessee Valley were also hit by monsoonal thunderstorms over the weekend, which the National Weather Service warned, “may cause locally considerable flash, urban, and small stream flooding in the Southwest U.S. the next few days.”
Meanwhile, in the northeastern U.S., torrential rains are expected to flood roads and disrupt traffic in New York City and the surrounding tri-state area Tuesday, with both New York and New Jersey on flood watch.
Toronto is also under a severe thunderstorm watch as of Tuesday, with torrential downpours expected and local rainfall in excess of 50 mm.
— with files from The Associated Press
