Fire crew searching for Texas grandmother find flooded car, body
FORT WORTH, Texas --- Firefighters searching for a 76-year-old woman who was swept away in fast-moving North Texas floodwaters have found a submerged car with a body inside.
The Fort Worth Fire Department says the car was found Monday a mile downstream from where Zenola Jenkins' vehicle washed off a highway bridge Friday.
CBS Dallas-Fort Worth reports that Fort Worth Deputy Krystal Salazar was also swept away in flood waters while attempting to rescue Jenkins. She was later rescued and taken to JPS Hospital.
Officials said the car was located approximately one mile downstream from the bridge on Oak Grove Road South where the vehicle was taken by the flood.
CBS DFW reports high water and debris had kept divers from recovering the vehicle until Monday.
"We thought the car was caught underwater, maybe 100 yards at most," said Kyle Clay with the Fort Worth Fire Department. "It moved much further than we thought. It's just a testament to the strength of that water."
Clay says firefighters believe the car belongs to Jenkins, who lived nearby in Burleson, and that the body inside is her.
Jenkins' family declined an on-camera interview with CBS DFW, but said she was a beloved grandmother who was driving home from work when she tried crossing the Deer Creek bridge on Oak Grove Road.
She worked at a Ross department store in Burleson for the past decade. Workers there said that she was recently promoted to store manager.
Eight people died in flooding during storms in Texas over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Heavy rain caused sanitary sewer overflows at several locations in Dallas.
Utility officials said Monday that none of the diluted waste-water affected city water supplies.