Florence Update: Rescue Crews Looking for 1-Year-Old Swept Away in Floodwaters

A 1-year-old child was reportedly swept away in floodwaters caused by Hurricane Florence’s remnants.

Crews are now searching for the child, after they rescued the child’s mother, who is in the hospital. The station reported that the boy is named Kaiden Lee-Welch.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook on Sept. 17: “Search and rescue teams spent several hours last night searching for the missing one year old child, Kaiden Lee-Welch, who was swept away in rushing waters from Richardson Creek.”

“The mother drove around the barricades on N.C. 218 and continued traveling east until her vehicle encountered rushing water flowing across the road. Her vehicle left the roadway and came to rest amongst a group of trees. She managed to free herself and Kaiden, who was in a car seat, but lost her grip on him in the rushing water,” the office said.

Now, search and rescue crews and water rescue crews are working to locate the child.

According to WRAL, the woman drove through flooded waters and was swept away on North Carolina Highway 218.

When the car came to a stop on the side of the road after it was swept, the woman freed her child from the car seat. However, she lost her grip and the child was swept away, it was reported.

WXII reported that the woman drove around the barricades on N.C. 218 and kept traveling east before her vehicle came to rushing floodwaters that were flowing across the road.

Officials say that at least 17 people died in Florence-related incidents.

“Not only are you going to see more impact across North Carolina ... but we’re also anticipating you are about to see a lot of damage going through West Virginia, all the way up to Ohio as the system exits out,” Brock Long of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday on Fox News, according to The Associated Press.

County commission chairman Woody White said officials were planning for food and water to be flown into Wilmington, which has been cut off due to floodwaters.

“Our roads are flooded,” he said. “There is no access to Wilmington.”

Members of the North Carolina Task Force urban search and rescue team check cars in a flooded neighborhood looking for residents who stayed behind as Florence continues to dump heavy rain in Fayetteville, N.C., on Sept. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Update on Florence

The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center at 9 a.m. on Sept. 17, said Florence is continuing to produce heavy rains over portions of North Carolina as well as parts of South Carolina and West Virginia.

“Flash flood warnings are currently in effect across a large portion of southern and western North Carolina, portions of far northeast South Carolina and southwest Virginia. Flash flood watches are in effect across much of North Carolina, northern South Carolina, portions of Western Virginia, southern and eastern West Virginia, central and western Maryland, central and western Pennsylvania, southern New York and southern New England,” the agency said.

The storm, a tropical depression,  is moving to the north-northwest at 13 mph. Forecasters said this motion will accelerate and head to the east on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18.

The Associated Press contributed to this report