New Campaign Aims to Ensure Safety During Severe Weather Season

Two DFW deaths in nine months
Creeks and spillways are a natural attraction for kids
Know What 2 Do campaign aimed at prevention

by Barry Carpenter, CW 33 News at Nine

March 21, 2008

Spring time in Texas; the weather is great one minute; the next, skies grow dark.

Last June, 13 year-old William Griffith was playing in a duck pond in Garland. He became trapped in high waters and was swept away to his death. He was found two and a half hours later.

On Tuesday, 14 year-old Shaun Hebert was playing in a culvert when he was taken away by rising water. Two days later he was found dead.

Two deaths that shouldn't have happened.

"It is preventable. Public education and knowing your hazards, and knowing areas like this when there is not normally water...it can certainly rise at a very quick rate and cause an event such as this," says Mesquite Emergency Management's Phillip Mongeau.

Metroplex cities have launched the educational Know What 2 Do campaign aimed at prevention. And meteorologists, like CW 33's Bob Goosmann, warn people before storms arrive.

But still, many don't listen. Mongeau says, "Creeks and spillways are natural attractions for kids to play; here you can see the spray paint and the bicycle tire marks, but these conditions can turn to this..in a matter of minutes."

It can change very quickly; with a head or wall of water, large amounts of debris can certainly come down stream and cause what we saw here yesterday here in Mesquite.

Maria Flores lives two blocks from the culvert and has warned her kids to stay away. She says, "I've got three kids, my sister has five, and they are always walking through this creek here, so it was kind of scary to me."

Hopefully, two deaths within nine months will scare kids away for good. Click here for more information on the Know What 2 Do campaign.