Jeff Downing confirmed to The Enquirer that his neighbor and half-sister, Victoria Kennerd, was the woman killed.
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The family’s father and two other sons survived, and they were rescued two hours after the home was swept away.
RIPLEY, Ohio (AP) – A pregnant woman was killed along with two of her children when their mobile home was swept away during a weekend torrential downpour, a coroner said Monday as authorities began assessing damage to homes and roads in southern Ohio.
The children’s father and Victoria’s fiance, 47-year old Tony Barrios and two older children survived the accident. Modesto police spokeswoman Heather Graves said Martin Martinez, 30, of Modesto, was detained in San Jose early Sunday and booked into a Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of murder. The family had taken refuge in the bathroom of the mobile home before they were separated by the rising creek waters. He was trapped in his house with his wife, Sharon, for an hour as the waters rose and covered their driveway. He told the Enquirer the home will have to be torn down. ‘There was nothing they could do.’.
The Red Oak Creek in Brown County is barely ankle deep most days, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, but a sudden downpour on Saturday night saw the creek overflow its banks and tear through the small village of Ripley, 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati, home to about 1,750 people. One boy was found in a tree. The rain also flooded streets in nearby Georgetown.
“We periodically get flash flooding, and get water into homes and stuff, but nothing of this magnitude”, Owens reported.
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The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for much of central and southwest Ohio, including Brown County, until midnight Sunday.
