Mother recalls night flood changed everything

Mother recalls night flood changed everything
Story Highlights
Flash flood rips family home off foundation and leaves 2-year-old boy dead

Mother clings to tree for six hours, clasping her other son to her chest

A serene creek was transformed into an 18-foot-deep torrent

A community rallies around the family, trying to make sense of it all


By Jessica Ravitz
CNN

CARROLLTON, Georgia (CNN) -- A clanking noise woke Bridgett Crawford after midnight on Monday. She was sleeping on the couch with her 1-year-old son, Cooper, as rain pounded their mobile home off Horsley Mill Road near Snake Creek.



Where was this strange sound coming from? Bridgett got up and stepped into the kitchen -- where water covered her feet. Peering outside, she saw one of the family's cars half-submerged.

As Bridgett rushed around the home, her husband, Craig, came out of the bedroom, where he'd fallen asleep with their other son, 2-year-old Preston Slade. They looked in the boys' room. It was flooded.

Bridgett placed a frantic call to Craig's parents, who live just up the hill. "You have to come get us!" she told them. Within two minutes, the young mother and father had thrown clothes on their boys, and they were ready to escape. Bridgett looked outside again and watched as floodwater whisked the car away.
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Mother recalls night flood changed everything