The search for a missing 5-year-old boy, Kyle Doan, who was swept away by floodwaters near San Miguel, California earlier this week, will resume on Wednesday morning. Kyle, a kindergarten student at Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel, was separated from his family on Monday, January 9th after days of heavy rainfall caused catastrophic flooding in the area. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has declared the search for Kyle a “top priority” for search and rescue teams, and efforts will continue while weather conditions permit. The search operations were halted on Monday after approximately five hours due to the dangerous weather conditions, with the water levels in the Salinas River rising too high for first responders to continue their efforts safely.
The search for Kyle resumed on Tuesday but was also called off due to the dangerous weather conditions, according to Fox News. The water level is high and fast moving, making it unsafe for search and rescue teams to continue their efforts. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has cautioned members of the public not to conduct their own searches and put themselves in harm’s way, as this would divert resources that are needed to search for Kyle. Kyle is described as having short dirty blond hair, hazel eyes, and is four feet tall and 52 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black puffer jacket with a red liner, blue jeans, and blue and gray Nike tennis shoes.
It is important to note that Kyle has not been declared dead and search and rescue teams remain hopeful of finding him. Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said “We always have hope, and we never want to take that hope away from the parents of the child either.” The Superintendent of the San Miguel Joint Union School District, Karen Grandoli, expressed her heartbreak over the tragedy, saying “Our staff is heartbroken over this tragedy. I guess we’re still hoping for a miracle, but it doesn’t look good.”
The boy went missing on Monday morning after a truck his mother was driving became stranded in floodwaters just before 8 a.m. near Paso Robles. Bystanders helped pull the mother from the truck, but the boy was carried out of the vehicle and swept downstream by the floodwaters. The recent flooding in California has led to at least 17 deaths, and more than 200,000 homes and businesses without power. Thousands of Californian residents are still under flood warnings.
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