Relatives: 4 Volunteer Rescuers in Houston Have Vanished

3 others were reportedly found hanging in trees with electrocution burns
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2017 10:25 AM CDT
Relatives Say 4 Houston Rescuers Have Gone Missing
Another Houston tragedy?   (Facebook)

More apparent bad news as the Houston area continues to battle the devastating effects of Harvey. The Houston Chronicle reports that four men who'd gone out in a group of seven on Monday to try to rescue neighbors in a northeastern part of the city have gone missing after their boat was caught up in fast water from a teeming bayou. Relatives of the men say that as the boat headed toward a utility pole, all seven leaped out of the vessel; three of the men were reportedly found Tuesday morning clinging to trees, suffering from electrocution burns, with no sign of the other four.

A Houston police rep says no report has yet been filed with them, and the Harris County joint information center didn't have any information to offer, either, as of early Wednesday. But Perla Jaquez, who says she's the wife of one of the missing, Ben Vizuelt, tells ABC13 that the vanished men all knew how to swim and knew the area they were searching; only one of the men was reported to have been wearing a life jacket, and there was apparently only one phone among them, which is now not responding to any calls. ABC notes one of the men had posted a Facebook Live video of them on the water before things went awry. "I am praying for them to be saved," Jaquez says. "That we can find them stuck in a tree, but safe." (More Houston stories.)

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