Flood in Texas Causes Derailment; Man Caught in Auto Is Swept Away

Surging floodwaters that killed one man and left a 13-year-old boy missing washed out railroad tracks and triggered a train derailment Tuesday, authorities said.

Leo John Vyvjala, 61, had just stuck his head out of his nearly submerged car and was reaching for a life preserver when his vehicle overturned and fatally crushed him Monday night, police said.

“There was nothing he could do, and we were maybe 30 seconds too late,” said Capt. Donny O’Neill, 37, one of the firefighters who tried to rescue him. “He was reaching for us, and there was nothing we could do.”

The car was later swept off the low Olmos Creek bridge and into the floodwaters that rose more than three feet in an hour, O’Neill said.

Hampered by the rising waters, rescue workers found Vyvjala’s body about 100 yards downstream. By Tuesday, the high waters had receded, a spokeswoman for the city said.

No one was hurt in the early morning derailment near the central Texas town of Lometa, officials said.

In Duncanville, a Dallas suburb, at least 40 residents searched for Tyrone Jones, 13, last seen Sunday trying to surf with a friend in 10-foot-high water in a drainage ditch, authorities said. His 15-year-old companion escaped harm.