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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHouston teen shares anxious Facebook post hours before her family of 6 drowned
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/please-let-this-pass-houston-teen-shares-anxious-facebook-post-hours-before-her-family-of-6-drowned/
A Texas teenager posted a heartbreaking message on Facebook hours before she and her family were swept away by floodwaters as they tried to flee Hurricane Harvey.
Devy Saldivar, 16, is feared dead, along with four of her siblings and her great-grandparents after their van was overcome Sunday by flooding while crossing a Houston bridge.
Early Sunday morning, Devy Saldivar shared her fears on social media: No sleep & anxiety, please let this pass sooner.
She and her family tried to escape the flooding later that day but were likely killed in the attempt.
malaise
(269,256 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)I've only heard of one death so far.
Blue_Adept
(6,402 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)I trust UK sources unless it's one of those ridiculous rags.
Blue_Adept
(6,402 posts)Shouldn't be hard to find. Everything I've seen on this family tragedy in particular hasn't been fully sourced yet nor has there been bodies found as of the last time I looked.
Which is why, at the time, it was not being included anywhere.
Strange
Miles Archer
(18,837 posts)The Houston family was traveling in the van when it was swept off a Houston bridge and into a storm-ravaged bayou.
Link to tweet
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says the van is in about 10 feet (3 meters) of muddy water in Green's Bayou in northeast Houston. He says the bodies of two adults can be seen in the front seat but that if the four children's bodies are inside they are obscured because of the water conditions and the angle of the vehicle.
http://news3lv.com/news/nation-world/bodies-of-six-family-members-found-in-submerged-van-in-houston-bayou
LovesPNW
(65 posts)What's the actual number?
EDIT: 14 reported dead by a news source I will not link to (faux)
Igel
(35,383 posts)Some are confirmed dead, some not. Some are confirmed to be due to the storm, some not.
Many news channels assume all deaths during a hurricane are due to the hurricane. Because people don't die otherwise, I guess. Really, they just want the number to be as high as possible, not as accurate as possible. Accuracy is a minimal limiting factor, not the goal. High death tolls = viewers.
So one of the fatalities confirmed was due to a heart attack. Storm related? Maybe. But I have a sort of flatfooted way of dealing with the numbers.
(Total dead during the time of the storm and immediate clean-up)
- (the number expected to die of natural causes during that time period)
= storm-related deaths.
People who'd have died from a heart attack from heavy labor at work or in car crashes but who don't die because they're at home or in a shelter are "saved" by the storm but can't be identified. Those who die from natural causes like heart attacks aren't always storm related, but some are. Suicides happen, but might increase during a disaster (or might decline, I have no idea). I think my method of looking at the increase over baseline makes sense. It tends to give lower numbers for most disasters than the media prominently report, though, but I think they're more accurate.
These are the first page of hits in order of what Google returned, minus Breitbart and NY Post which also reported it. (Oddly, The Guardian didn't surface in a search.)
http://www.khou.com/weather/harvey/family-of-6-drowns-inside-van-while-trying-to-escape-harvey-floods/468579903
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2017/08/family_of_6_drowns_in_texas.html
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/08/28/report-family-of-6-drowned-inside-van-hurricane-harvey/23188509/
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/28/family-6-feared-drowned-while-trying-to-escape-harvey-reports-say.html
http://wreg.com/2017/08/28/six-family-members-believed-dead-after-van-swept-away-while-fleeing-harvey-report/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4830886/Family-6-die-van-swept-away-Hurricane-Harvey.html
The story cycles in and out of the local news quite a bit. KHOU is local and all the local news sources include it.
It's sad, but at the same time the last time I saw it cycle through it always ended a bit sadly: There was no indication that the family was actually in danger (that may have been updated this morning, I haven't checked) but the driver ignored all the warnings not to drive where you can't see the actual road bed. "Don't drown, turn around" is the mantra that we've heard for years in the news, on billboards, in PSAs, on roadway traffic signs. Most of the local news has felt sorry for the kids but used the driver's actions as a warning. Maybe it helped some people. Dunno.