The 5-year-old boy who was swept away by “raging floodwaters” in California was still missing Tuesday, authorities said.
Officials deployed each water and air rescue teams to go looking for the boy, identified as Kyle Doan, who was together with his mother Monday after they became stranded within the flooding near Paso Robles.
Rescuers spent five hours in search of the kindergartener Monday but were forced to call off the search due to the intense weather conditions which have already killed no less than 14.
Kyle and his mother were on their approach to his school when their truck became stranded just before 8 a.m. Bystanders were capable of pull the boy’s mother from the automotive, but Kyle was swept out by the “raging floodwaters” and carried downstream, police said. Officials theorize he was likely taken right into a river.
To this point, the one sign rescuers have found of the boy is his shoe.
Kyle, who has short dirty blond hair and hazel eyes, was last seen wearing a black puffer jacket with a red liner, blue jeans, and blue and grey Nike tennis shoes. He’s 4 feet tall and weighs 52 kilos.
Police said in search of the boy stays their top priority.
“The conditions, nevertheless, remain extremely dangerous,” the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said.
“The water level is high and continues to be fast-moving. The general public is strongly cautioned to not conduct self-initiated searches and put themselves in harm’s way and turn out to be a victim requiring resources that will otherwise be used for searching.”
The stormy weather has downed trees, created sinkholes and triggered mudslides across the state, and dumped as much as 14 inches of rain in some areas.
Forecasters expect the rain to proceed through Tuesday.
With Post Wires