US baby found clinging to dead mother in Hurricane Harvey floodwater
A US mother has been found dead floating in floodwaters in Texas with her young child clinging to her body.
“The child was holding on to her mother,” Beaumont Police said in a statement.
“The mother was unresponsive. The child was responsive but suffering from hypothermia,” they continued.
Authorities confirmed that they attempted CPR on the woman, but she had died.
Police said the Beaumont woman and her young daughter were travelling on a service road when the pair came across “high water".
#NEW: Mother in Beaumont, #Texas killed in floods. Child saved.
Dramatic and heartbreaking details in release below: pic.twitter.com/KMC8cNInmI— kaitlyn anderson (@kait_anderson_) August 30, 2017
The vehicle then became stuck and the mother exited the car with her daughter.
At some point the pair were swept into a nearby canal and then floated over a kilometre from the car.
A spokeswoman for the Beaumont Police Department, Officer Carol Riley, told People Magazine the mother’s actions had “absolutely saved the child’s life.”
“They were in the water for quite some time,” she continued.
“The mother did the best she could to keep her child up over the water.
“The baby also had a backpack that was helping her float on her back and she was holding on to her mom,” Riley said.
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The child is believed to be in a stable condition.
People Magazine reports the child is three years old and the mother was aged 41.
Names are being withheld until family has had time to notify other family and friends.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Friday as a Category 4 storm, slamming Texas with brutal winds and severe flooding, leaving Houston underwater and millions of residents in need of aid.
