One woman is dead after her vehicle was swept away by floodwater in Mesquite, fire officials confirmed to NBC 5.
Mesquite Fire Chief Rusty Wilson said the unidentified woman was inside a vehicle under a bridge on Military Parkway. Officials added that the car was presumably swept off the road at Scyene Road Bridge at the service road of Interstate Highway 635. The vehicle was then discovered by officials as the water receded, according to Chief Wilson.
Late Monday, the victim was identified as 60-year-old Jolene Jarrell.
Officials and friends of Jarrell who were on-scene said she was a mom of two sons and a daughter who loved her kids and grandchild. They added Jarrell was rideshare driver and was on her way home from dropping off a passenger in Terrell when she got caught in the flood.
Friends said she was on the phone with her husband of more than 20 years when her car began filling with water, first to her ankles, then to her knees, then the call suddenly dropped.
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"They told me that themselves that they were on the phone with her and lost contact with her so they were in the act of actually looking for her," said Chief Wilson.
It was Jarrell's husband, friends said, that first spotted the wheels of his wife's SUV under the bridge.
Mesquite police and firefighters were on the scene when the rescue efforts turned into a recovery.
FLOODING IN NORTH TEXAS
In total, the City of Mesquite said it received 11.66 inches of rain during Monday's historic rainfall event. Photos and TxDOT cameras showed the entire area around I-635 and Scyene Road underwater on Monday morning.
Teacher Brittany Kyle and her two kids stalled out near the area and decided to evacuate their car. She said the driver of a semi waved them over to wait out the storm in the cab of his truck.
Kyle later learned that someone died in the flood.
"It hit me. I cried," Kyle said. "I closed my door and I cried because that could've easily been us."
CONTINUING WEATHER COVERAGE
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