A woman and her four grandchildren were killed by flooding early Saturday in Palestine, Texas, CNN reports. According to the AP, the children were all under 9 years old. The flooding started with heavy rainfall shortly after midnight, quickly overflowing a neighborhood creek. "We had people tell us that within minutes, the water was waist deep," a police captain tells the AP. The water would eventually reach to the roofs of homes in one Palestine cul-de-sac. The 64-year-old woman and her grandchildren were attempting to escape their home when they got swept away, WFAA reports. A neighbor says he briefly saw them leaving their home before losing sight of them in the rising water.
A search for the victims lasted hours; their bodies were found in the mud after flooding receded. No one else was killed in the flooding, but 10 homes in the cul-de-sac were severely damaged. One man had to be rescued from the roof of his home by a dump truck. And another person was reported missing after flooding elsewhere in the county. A temporary shelter has been set up at the Palestine Mall. (Read more flooding stories.)
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