Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 25, 1991 TAG: 9103250321
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MIDDLETOWN LENGTH: Medium
The body of Joseph Hamby was pulled out of Meadow Brook, a creek west of Middletown, on Saturday afternoon, the Frederick County Sheriff's Department reported.
Both the boy and his 6-year-old brother, Chris, fell into the rain-swollen creek, but the older boy managed to get out and run to their apartment for help, Sgt. Dennis Haas said.
The body was found about three-fourths of a mile downstream, Haas said.
Gary Legge, the town's assistant fire chief, said the creek, normally about 1 foot deep, was 5 or 6 feet deep and about 10 feet wide with a swift current.
He said the two children and their 9-year-old brother, Ricky, had been riding their bicycles in the parking lot of the Cedar Creek Apartments when their mother, Janet Hamby, went inside to check on her two other children, a teen-age daughter and an 11-month-old baby. She had been inside about 10 minutes when the accident occurred, he said.
"The children probably just walked down to see the flood water," Haas said. "It was a fatal mistake."
Between 2 and 3 inches of rain fell throughout the area on Saturday and Sunday.
More than 70 sections of Shenandoah County roads were obstructed by flood waters and rescue workers responded to several reports of vehicles trapped by high water.
Jerry Copp, the county's assistant resident engineer for the state Department of Transportation, estimated damage to county roads at between $50,000 and $60,000. Some road sections were washed out, he said.
Two cars were trapped by high water at Bryce Resort, but the occupants had reached safety by the time rescue workers arrived, a Sheriff's Department dispatcher said.
The driver of a pickup had to be removed by rescue workers after an unsuccessful attempt to cross a submerged section of Virginia 698 east of Mount Jackson on Saturday, Copp said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB