English
Korean
Spanish
HALTOM CITY?Disaster relief volunteers with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention on Wednesday continued working amid water-damaged mobile homes in suburban Fort Worth where at least one child died when she was carried away by rushing floodwaters during a rescue attempt.
Throughout North Texas early Monday, flash floods devastated parts of Tarrant, Denton, Cooke and Grayson counties, with damage most severe in Cooke and Grayson counties, from Interstate 35 near Gainesville east to Sherman, about 90 miles north of Dallas.
Damage to mobile homes in a six-square-block area of Haltom City, northeast of Fort Worth, sent dozens of families to seek shelter elsewhere.
As of Thursday, six people were confirmed dead, including 4-year-old Alexandria Collins of Haltom City, whom officials said was whisked away from her mother’s grasp as the two were trying to flee in a neighbor’s boat, and 2-year-old Makalya Marie Mollenhour, whose body was found late Tuesday about two-and-a-half miles south of the Pecan Grove Mobile Home Park in Gainesville, NBC television affiliate KTEN in Denison reported.
KTEN-TV said the mobile home the family lived in was washed off its base and struck a bridge. The young girl’s grandmother, 60-year-old Billie Mollenhour, and her 5-year-old sister, Teresa Arnett, also died in the flooding.
Also among the dead is 74-year-old Reginald Gattis, a member of First Baptist Church of Sherman. The pastor of the church, Michael Lawson, said Gattis is survived by his wife and had been a member there for almost eight years.
“In fact, he joined on the very same day we came there in view of a call?Nov. 14, 1999,” Lawson recalled.
Gattis was returning to Sherman in his pickup truck when the vehicle was overcome by water and he was unable to free himself,Lawson said.
Also, the home of another church member who was away in Colorado was overcome by high water, with the family’s car washed up against the back of the garage.
“They pretty much lost everything,” Lawson said.
The other identified victim is Patricia Beshears, a Denison woman killed Monday morning when her carstalled in floodwaters in Sherman.
Jim Richardson, SBTC disaster relief director, said the effort at the Skyline Mobile Home Park in Haltom City would last possibly a week.
“We are trying to get it as clean as possible in order to dry out so that some of these folks can begin returning to their homes,” Richardson said.
On Wednesday, a handful of SBTC disaster relief volunteers were continuing assessments among several dozen mobile homes in the lowest part of the neighborhood at the bottom of a hill.
Nearby, two trailers sat nearly perpendicular to one another, with each 15-20 feet from where they stood before the waters washed them away. Behind the homes in a creek, one of the homeowners’ pickup truck rested partially submerged.
“What always strikes you is these are very poor folk
