Search called off for boy swept away by California flooding

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rescuers have ended the search for a 5-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in central California Monday morning after it became unsafe for divers to continue.

The search was called off around 3 p.m. because the current and rising water levels of the Salinas River were too dangerous for divers, said spokesperson Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

The boy’s mother was driving a white truck when it became stranded in floodwaters just before 8 a.m. near Paso Robles, according to Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.

Bystanders were able to pull the mother out of the truck, but the boy was carried out of the vehicle and swept downstream, Swanson said. There was no evacuation order in the area at the time.

A firefighter discovered one of the boy’s shoes. But crews still had not found the child more than five hours later.

The National Weather Service reported that at least 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain fell over 12 hours, with several more inches predicted before the latest storm system moves through an area where roads wind along wooded hillsides studded with large houses. Upscale Montecito is squeezed between mountains and the Pacific and is home to celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.