A 2-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters Thursday evening in the California desert city of Barstow has been found dead, police said.
Xavier Aguilera’s body was discovered Friday afternoon in the San Bernardino County Flood Control Channel south of the Mojave River, the Barstow Police Department said in a statement Friday.
“Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time,” it said.
A car is swept off the roadway by floodwaters in Barstow, Calif., on Thursday. (Barstow Police Department via Facebook)
The boy was in a vehicle with his father on historic Route 66 in Barstow on Thursday when flash flooding swept it away shortly after 7 p.m., the Barstow Police Department said Friday.
A National Weather Service spotter report said a flash flood west of Lenwood Road on Main Street, which runs along Route 66, inundated the roadway about 7 p.m. Thursday. “A car tried to drive through a flooded roadway and was swept off the road,” it said.
Despite the downpour Thursday night, Barstow police, fire crews and volunteers fanned out to look for the missing vehicle and its occupants, Barstow police said.
The boy’s father, Brandon Padilla Aguilera, 26, was found on an island that rose from floodwaters, police said. He was rescued and taken to Barstow Community Hospital and released by Friday, police said.
NBC Los Angeles reported that 150 search, rescue and volunteer crew members participated in the search for the boy on Friday.
Barstow police said Friday that authorities had searched for the boy for 20 hours when his body was found.
The Barstow Police Department posted an image of the vehicle that carried the Aguileras, a Kia sedan with its front end nearly buried in floodwater, on Facebook.
The downpour was the result of thunderstorms said to be the remnants of Tropical Storm Mario.
The California Department of Transportation said in a statement that flash floods washed out multiple sections of State Route 38 in the San Bernardino Mountains west of Big Bear Lake. Multiple vehicles were stranded in mudslides and debris flows along the roadway and were freed by Caltrans crews, the agency said.
The roadway was closed in both directions until repairs can be made, it said.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the most rain from the thunderstorm event fell in the community of Fawnskin in Big Bear Valley and in Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains, which separate desert communities like Palm Springs from the rest of urban Southern California. Both locations posted a total of 2.68 inches, according to National Weather Service data.
Needles, a small desert city in San Bernardino County adjacent to the Arizona border, broke its record precipitation for Sept. 18 with 0.33 inches of rain, the weather service said. The old record of 0.23 was set in 1972, it said.
In 2023, the remnants of Tropical Storm Hillary moved into the Southern California desert, flooding multiple homes and creating perilous, muddy conditions that trapped 58 people who were rescued by first responders in Cathedral City.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
