California floods: Search resumes for five-year-old boy washed away by deadly floodwaters

This is the first picture of a five-year-old boy swept away by flood waters in California has been released as searches resumed on Tuesday.

Authorities and family are holding out hope that Kyle Doan, a young pupil at Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel, can be found.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said: “A break in the intense storms is allowing today’s search which will involve all available resources of the Sheriff’s Office including the USAR (Underwater Search and Rescue) Team and air operations.

“The conditions, however, remain extremely dangerous. The water level is high and continues to be fast moving.”

The boy’s mother was driving a white truck when it became stranded in floodwaters just before 8am on Monday near Paso Robles, according to Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.

Bystanders were able to pull the mother out of the truck, but the boy was carried out of the vehicle and swept downstream, Swanson said.

There was no evacuation order in the area at the time. A firefighter discovered one of the boy’s shoes, but crews still had not found the child more than five hours later.

San Miguel Joint Union School District Superintendent Karen Grandoli said the boy’s mother is a teacher at the same school he attends.

“San Miguel is a small, very close-knit community and everyone has the family in their thoughts and prayers during this unfathomable tragedy,” Grandoli’s statement said.

“The family is continuing to search for him in hopes that he might be found. Staff is beginning to organize support for the family. We are determining what their immediate needs are at this time.”

At least 17 people have died from storms that began late last month, Governor Gavin Newsom said during a visit to the scenic town of Capitola on the Santa Cruz coast that was hard hit by high surf and flooding creek waters last week.

The deaths included a pickup truck driver and motorcyclist killed Tuesday morning when a eucalyptus tree fell on them on Highway 99 in the San Joaquin Valley near Visalia, the California Highway Patrol said.

“We’ve had less people die in the last two years of major wildfires in California than have died since New Year’s Day related to this weather,” Newsom said. “These conditions are serious and they’re deadly.”

The storm that began Monday dumped more than a foot and a half (45 centimeters) of rain in Southern California mountains and buried Sierra Nevada ski resorts in more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow.