An 11-year-old boy is dead and a woman is hospitalized after they were pulled into a storm drain during Monday night’s heavy flooding in Bentonville.“We began to search through the storm drain system, pulling manhole covers trying to locate the victims,” Deputy Chief Kevin Boynston with the Bentonville Fire Department said.Police, fire and swift water crews responded to a call at Southeast 28th Street and C Street near the Walton Crossing apartments. They say the 11-year-old was at the retention pond before getting sucked in and the 47-year-old woman jumped in to save him.“The female was within 20 yards of the retention area but the boy was located about 500 yards away,” Boynston said.“It would feel like hundreds of pounds of pressure pushing you through a pipe,” said city of Bentonville engineer, Dan Weese. “There are several turns in that particular pipe where anybody going down it would have stopped and made a turn in a very small space.” The boy and woman were transported to Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville where the boy died. Boynston believes the woman will be okay. Bentonville detectives were working with wastewater crews today running a camera through the drain as part of their investigation. “One of our swift water personnel said the water in the retention area at the time was four or five feet deep and if you have a drain at the bottom of a water source that is going to create quite a bit of suction, it’s going to create quite a bit of power and a typical human cannot fight that,” Boynston said.
An 11-year-old boy is dead and a woman is hospitalized after they were pulled into a storm drain during Monday night’s heavy flooding in Bentonville.
“We began to search through the storm drain system, pulling manhole covers trying to locate the victims,” Deputy Chief Kevin Boynston with the Bentonville Fire Department said.
Police, fire and swift water crews responded to a call at Southeast 28th Street and C Street near the Walton Crossing apartments. They say the 11-year-old was at the retention pond before getting sucked in and the 47-year-old woman jumped in to save him.
“The female was within 20 yards of the retention area but the boy was located about 500 yards away,” Boynston said.
“It would feel like hundreds of pounds of pressure pushing you through a pipe,” said city of Bentonville engineer, Dan Weese. “There are several turns in that particular pipe where anybody going down it would have stopped and made a turn in a very small space.”
The boy and woman were transported to Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville where the boy died. Boynston believes the woman will be okay. Bentonville detectives were working with wastewater crews today running a camera through the drain as part of their investigation.
“One of our swift water personnel said the water in the retention area at the time was four or five feet deep and if you have a drain at the bottom of a water source that is going to create quite a bit of suction, it’s going to create quite a bit of power and a typical human cannot fight that,” Boynston said.
