Four-year-old boy is swept to his death in Texas floods after becoming stuck in car with his parents as Houston

A Texas mother has described the devastating moment her four-year-old son was swept away from her in the torrential floods ravaging the state. 

Chelsey and Aaron Warren lost Lucas, their only child, after their car became stuck in rainwater on their way home from a friend’s house in the early hours of Sunday.

The family of three had been driving home on County Road 528 in Burleson, near Fort Worth – an area which has been ravaged by the catastrophic storms.

Chelsey said their car began filling up with water so she grabbed hold of Lucas and the three attempted to flee on foot when tragedy struck. 

‘The current came up real high and he just let go,’ she told NBC5. ‘I didn’t hear anything from him, I think he just went under.’ 

Chelsey said they were familiar with County Road 528, which is prone to flooding – but officials normally close it off when water levels become too high. 

‘Usually, there’s a block in the road that says don’t pass through there or has a sign that says flooding water, please turn around, and there was nothing,’ she said. ‘I had saw somebody else had gone through.’

As they tried to plough their vehicle through the water, the car cut out and they quickly became trapped amid the natural disaster.

‘My car battery died, and then the car started filling up with water, so we grabbed Lucas out of his car seat,’ Chelsey said. 

The devastated mother added that they tried to escape on foot but they were swept off the road. 

Her husband became separated from them and she trod water while desperately holding on to Lucas for more than an hour. 

It was at this point that the current surged and they were torn apart.

Chelsey said Johnson County rescuers arrived in a boat minutes later and took her to hospital before launching a search for her son.     

The Johnson County Office of Emergency Management confirmed Chelsey and Aaron were taken to a local hospital at about 5am. Hours later, at 7.20am, responders found Lucas dead in the water. 

Chelsey said the sheriff broke the horrific news to her while she was in hospital, telling her Lucas ‘looked really peaceful and that all of his clothes weren’t ripped’.   

‘He looks like he just went to sleep,’ she told NBC5. 

Lucas had been weeks away from his fifth birthday. Chelsey said her entire family has been devastated by his death. 

‘He’s my everything,’ she said, adding that he was a miracle baby who spent weeks in the NICU after he was born. ‘I can’t sleep without him, I can’t, I do everything with him.’

‘He’s the best,’ she added. ‘He’s such a bright, sweet, amazing, amazing boy.’ 

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said a local saw what happened to the Warren family and called 911 seeking help for them at 2am Sunday. 

They notified deputies of a vehicle stuck in floodwaters with three occupants inside on the County Road 528. 

The witness added that they could be seen being swept away as they tried to escape from the vehicle to dry ground. 

First responders rushed to the scene and began searching for the family, the office said, but it was too late for Lucas. 

The family also lost their car, phones and wallets amid the tragedy. A GoFundMe launched by a relative has so far raised more than $23,000 for Lucas’ funeral expenses and to help them get back on their feet. 

Johnson County Office of Emergency Management said the road wasn’t blocked off because there hadn’t been any reports of high water there until the 911 call for the family. 

‘Commissioner precincts generally close gates that might be on their roadways; that said, there had been no high water reported on that roadway until the call for rescue came in,’ a spokesperson for the county’s office of emergency management told NBC5. 

‘It is referred to as a flash flood because it happens very quickly.’ 

Another driver was caught in the torrential floods in Texas on Sunday – with shocking video capturing the moment their van plunged into the deep. 

The driver is seen in bright neon yellow clambering out of the window in a frantic bid to escape the doomed vehicle on the I-69 near Shepherd.

As the truck continued to sink deeper and deeper, another truck zoomed past it – sending water gushing on both side, and a different vehicle also managed to wade through.

The driver escaped eventually after perching on the hood of the vehicle. 

Part of Texas have been deluged by rain over the past week, and the flooding further intensified on Saturday into Sunday. 

The intense flooding has so far forced at least 400 residents to evacuate while destroying more than 100 homes. 

Texas has also been pounded with brutal weather conditions since early April as dozens of tornadoes have hit the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast.