Two people are dead in Marshall County and two dead bodies were found in a vehicle swept away in heavy flood waters in Hoover Wednesday night.
The Marshall County Coroner announced this morning that a 4-year-old girl died at Haynes Road and Hickory Hill Road in Arab and was recovered around 11:50 p.m. on Wednesday night.
Then, an 18-year-old female was recovered on Friendship Road in the Union Grove area around 7 a.m.
The identity of the two victims has not yet been released.
In Hoover, a couple was killed when authorities say they came down a hill and around a curve and met with unexpected flooding in the 1100 block of Riverchase Parkway West.
Shelby County Coroner Lina Evans identified the victims as Myles Jared Butler, and Latin Marie Hill. Both were 23 and lived in Birmingham.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said it was a busy night in the city and elsewhere throughout the county. “Some were absolutely very dramatic rescues that meant life and death for some of those citizens,’' the mayor said.
“We would ask…that you remember these two young people who lost their lives last night but particularly remember their families as they deal with the tragic loss of these two individuals,’' Brocato said.
A Hoover police officer was at that location blocking traffic, where first responders had just rescued another woman from her vehicle’s roof. Authorities described the water at that point as “raging.”
It was about 8:30 p.m. when the vehicle hydroplaned and briefly landed on a guardrail, trapping the man and woman inside. Hoover firefighters responded to the scene but were unable to reach the victims because of the swift water and the location of the vehicle.
Within minutes, authorities said, the vehicle flipped over the guardrail into the creek below. At least one witnesses told first responders they saw the vehicle float past their house and then sink in the lake.
Hoover police and firefighters search for a couple believed swept away in flood waters near Riverchase Parkway West. (Contributed)
“Search for the vehicle was continued throughout the night,’’ said Hoover Fire Battalion Chief Duane Prater.
The vehicle was found about 9 a.m. Thursday with two dead bodies inside, according to officials. The discovery was made about 75 to 100 yards from where it washed off the road and was submerged in about eight to 10 feet of water.
Hoover authorities called the flooding “unprecedented” and said some of the areas that flooded Wednesday night have not flooded in 20 years.
“It’s very heartbreaking for our first responders to respond there and to try to do everything you can to save those people and unfortunately not be able to,’' said Hoover police Capt. Keith Czeskleba. “It’s very tragic for our first responders to have to go through something like that. It’s really tough, and we’ve got things in place to help them out in the future.”
“We just could not get to them in time before the water took their car out of sight,’' Czeskleba said.
Cities throughout Jefferson County saw what is believed to be some of the worst flash flooding in recent memory Wednesday night.
In Birmingham, police and firefighters did numerous water rescues throughout the city.
Birmingham police East Precinct officers help a man to safety after rescuing him from his vehicle at First Avenue North and West Boulevard. (Contributed)
In one case, said BFRS Battalion Chief Sebastian Carrillo, a woman was rescued from her car by police officers but was unresponsive. The officers carried her to where firefighters were staging, and CPR was performed on her.
She was conscious when she was transported from the scene – 28th Street and 15th Avenue – and taken to the hospital. “I am pleased to inform you that because of all the heroic efforts of all our public safety personnel, this patient was fully revived, conscious and alert prior to her arrival at the hospital,’' Carrillo said.
“While the professionalism displayed by our public safety personnel is to be commended, it is underscored by the need to remind our citizens of the grave danger that they put themselves and our first responders in by trying to navigate flood waters,’' he said.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service made 16 water rescues during the weather event.
Pelham police did not report any injuries but said they were slammed by the flooding event. Here are the numbers released by Pelham early Thursday:
- 281 calls for service during the active flooding event
- 82 rescued from homes
- 15 to 20 rescued from vehicles
- 15 agencies assisted in the operation
- 107 emergency responders
- 16 boats staged and 12 were in the water at one point
“Water was coming in the car so fast I had to bail out the window,” said Jill Caskey, who watched Thursday morning as a tow truck hauled away her sport utility vehicle from a low-lying parking lot in Pelham. The car stalled as she was trying to navigate floodwaters during the deluge Wednesday night.
A police officer helped her to high ground, and Caskey’s husband picked her up on a roadside. But it then took them three hours to travel a few miles home because of flooded roads.
Caskey said she has heard the weather safety mantra of “turn around, don’t drown,” but “it really happened so fast I didn’t have time to think about it.”
In south Alabama near the Florida line, water covered streets in the flood-prone Escambia County towns of Brewton and East Brewton, inundating businesses in a shopping center with several feet of water.
As much as 3 feet of water was inside the community’s main grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, and two schools had to cancel classes, said Escambia Sheriff Heath Jackson.
“We’re hoping that the rain is going to stop so we can get some of this water ... out of here and we can start getting into these businesses that have taken on water to see what we can do to help them,” Jackson told WKRG-TV.
To the south, in Baldwin County, as much as 250,000 gallons of waste water overflowed from sewage systems along Mobile Bay, officials said.
More rain is in the forecast today for Alabama, including areas hard-hit by flash flooding on Wednesday and into the overnight hours.
A few school systems delayed opening or closed because of flooding.
See also: Birmingham area flooding prompts water rescues, closes roads: Pictures, videos
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story will be updated.