Three members of an Ohio family were swept away in their mobile home by the overflowing Red Oak Creek near Ripley. Three others survived.
Victoria Kennard, 32, who was six months pregnant, and two of her children, ages seven and five, died when their family mobile home was washed into the creek late Saturday along with with her fiancée Marco Barrios and two other children who survived,
authorities told WLWT-TV.
Ripley is a village of about 1,750 people 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati.
Art Owens, the Georgetown Village administrator, told the
Cincinnati Enquirer that the children who died were identified as Gabriel Barrios, 7, and Rose Barrios, whose bodies were discovered after the flood.
People magazine listed the girl's age as five.
Marcos Barrios Jr., 9, and his teenage half-brother Nick Kennard, both survived the flood with the elder Barrios. The Enquirer said one of the boys was found in a tree downstream.
Owens told
The Associated Press that floodwater covered several streets in Georgetown up to five to six feet. He said the Kennard and Barrios mobile home was just yards away from the creek.
"We periodically get flash flooding, and get water into homes and stuff, but nothing of this magnitude," said Owens.
Jeff Downing, Victoria Kennard's half-brother who lived next door to the couple, told the Enquirer she was engaged to be married to Barrios, who works in construction.
"They were really good parents," said Downing. "They were just trying to make it like everybody else."
The Weather Channel's meteorologist Jon Rowe told
NBC News that a strong thunderstorm poured four inches into the Ripley area in about an hour, sparking the flood.
More heavy rain was projected in eastern Missouri and Kentucky on Monday.
"With the humidity like it is — any thunderstorm could dump a boatload of rain," said Rowe.
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