MOUNTAIN HOME VILLAGE, CA — Two young siblings died after being swept away by a fast-flowing creek in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains, authorities said.
The tragedy occurred Tuesday when a mother took her 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to spend the afternoon at the Thurman Flat picnic area on Highway 38 near Mill Creek, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
They were playing along the creek when at one point the mother was tending to her son and her daughter was taken downstream, the department said.
“The mother searched for her but was unable to locate her,” the department said. “When she returned, her son was missing and assumed he was also down the river.”
The mother frantically searched for the two children, then walked to the picnic area and asked another family to help her search, an effort that was unsuccessful.
Rescue teams from several agencies arrived at the scene about 70 miles (113 kilometers) east of Los Angeles around 4 p.m. and eventually found the two children. The siblings were taken to local hospitals and pronounced dead after numerous life-saving efforts, the department said.
The names of the children and their mother were not immediately released.
California officials regularly warn that the state’s rivers and streams can become very dangerous when spring snowmelt fills them with very cold, fast-flowing water.
ABC News
