(Image source from: azcentral.com)

Arizona is experiencing one of the toughest phases during the holiday season with the flood, caused by the Arizona creek. While relief is being worked on to find better alternatives for the people trapped around, recent reports suggest that the flood took away the life of two children and 1 child is missing.

Two of the three children were found dead near the Tonto National Forest in Arizona on Saturday after the vehicle they were inside was trapped in the water a day earlier, which was on Friday. Apart from that, two other adults and four children were rescued from the same spot on Friday which is located around 50 miles northeast of Phoenix.

The authorities searched for the third missing child the entire day and had to wane down the search after daylight because it was to no avail. The third child is a 6 year old, who is still missing. After the search was called off at 5 pm in the evening, the authorities were again going to search for the girl the next day from 7 am in the morning.

According to the Gila County Sheriff's Office, a five year old boy was found dead at 08:45 am on Saturday and the second child who was swept away by the water was then found dead at 11:14 am the same day. The officials also said that the body of the boy was found around 3 miles downstream from where the car was stuck.

The search team came back with more equipments and tools with them on Saturday to ensure better impacts with the search results as the time rolled around. The Sheriff deputies also patrolled the entire area and several of the rescue vehicles were assigned to search for any signs and signals for the missing child.

Lt. Virgil Dodd of the Gila County Sheriff's Office stated saying, “Multiple rescue teams are on scene, and right now, we're actively looking for the children.” They further emphasised saying that the search condition was quite tough because of the overwhelming flood around. He further stated saying, “It's very hard with all the brush and everything we've got to go through, the strong waters going downstream.”

The rescue officers who found the vehicle stuck said that it is a military style vehicle around the Tonto Creek area on Friday night itself. They weren’t able to get the vehicle out at that time. But, when they did, they couldn’t find anyone inside the truck.

Further rescue mission is being conducted round to clock to find trace back to the child who is missing still.

By Somapika Dutta