Hunter Morrison/FacebookA young Texas man was electrocuted and killed while trying to save his horse from the heavy floodwaters of Tropical Storm Imelda.
Hunter Morrison, 19, died on Thursday (September 19), after trying to move his horse in the midst of torrential rains and severe flooding about 11 miles southwest of Beaumont.
Friends and family took to Facebook to clarify what happened and post their tributes, with his brother Caleb writing they are ‘going through one of the most horrific times’ in their lives.
Hello everybody. Right now my family and I are going through one of the most horrific times in our lives with losing…
Posted by Caleb Morrison on Thursday, September 19, 2019
The family reported Morrison’s death to authorities at about 12.30 – the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office also shared Caleb’s statement.
Keen to have the true story circulating instead of ‘false heroism’, Caleb wrote:
Thank you for all the kind words and phone calls I have received over the past 8 hrs but I do want to clarify something… he wasn’t ‘saving’ people. He was trying to move his horse, got electrocuted, and drowned.
I wanted to make that known because I have had news people call me and want the story. I am not upset by any means but I just want the facts to be straight and not give him a sense of false heroism.
According to Fox News, Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Crystal Holmes said an autopsy won’t be performed to establish the cause of death for several days because of the storm.
Hunter Morrison/FacebookSadly, it’s one of two deaths reported from the severe storm. A man drowned after driving through eight-foot-deep floodwaters near Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston during the Thursday afternoon rush hour, county sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared a state of emergency, saying Tropical Depression Imelda ‘has caused widespread and severe property damage and threatens loss of life’.
Local authorities have described the storm as ‘worse than Hurricane Harvey’ – the most extreme flooding event in US history.
PAOfficials have urged people to stay off the roads as the floodwaters grow deeper – in Houston, hundreds of vehicles stalled on freeways and 1,000 people had to be rescued.
As reported by the MailOnline, among the rescued were nine children and employees from a daycare centre in Aldine, about 10 miles north of Houston. The majority of the rescued had been unable to escape their homes due to the storm.
While Imelda has battered Texas with up to 28 inches of rain in some areas, the storm threatens to bring 40 inches of rain with its relentless rainfall. At least one hospital has also been evacuated.
PAAs per the MailOnline, Abbott said in a statement:
The State of Texas is working closely with local officials and emergency personnel to provide the resources they need to keep Texans safe from Tropical Storm Imelda.
I thank our first responders who are acting swiftly to help the communities that are facing this severe weather event. I urge all those in the path of this storm to take the necessary precautions and heed all warnings from local officials.
Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Hardin, Harris, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Newton, Orange and San Jacinto are included in the emergency declaration.
PAThe National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency warning, saying ‘life-threatening amounts of rainfall’ have already fallen.
The storm has caused travel chaos: at least 700 flights were cancelled at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and an additional 200 flights were delayed.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.