A 1-year-old boy survived the onslaught of Hurricane Beryl for days before he was spotted crawling along a Louisiana roadside, not far from where the body of his 4-year-old brother was found.
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Gary “Stitch” Guillory called the surviving boy a “miracle baby,” telling reporters on Tuesday that, aside from a few bug bites, he appeared otherwise unharmed. A trucker earlier in the day saw the baby moving through a ditch on I-10 eastbound near the 10-mile marker, he added.
Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas this week, with bands of heavy rain and severe winds battering massive swaths of the South. The extreme weather stretched as far as Louisiana, where it caused major damage, sweeping power outages and at least one death.
“This kid spent two days out in the weather on the side of the highway,” Guillory said, dubbing his survival “unbelievable.”
The discovery came a day after his brother’s body was pulled from a lake behind an Interstate 10 welcome center near the Texas state line. The remains were recovered some 6 miles away from where his younger sibling was found fighting for survival, according authorities.
There were no obvious signs of foul play and an autopsy is pending.
“We don’t know if he drowned, or we don’t know if he was dead before he went in the water,” Guillroy said.
Both boys were last seen on Saturday with their mother, Aaliyah Jack. Jack’s mother Conswella Jack, told the Advocate they were together for a funeral in Lafayette when her daughter suddenly fled with the boys. On Sunday, Conswella said she received a troubling text, prompting a search for both Jack and her kids.
“She finally reaches out to me, but it’s a text,” Conswella Jack said. “She sent me a picture of a car in some bushes that kind of looked like it was wrecked.
“I was confused, so I called, called and called, and could not reach her.”
Jack was located hundreds of miles away in Mississippi and arrested on charges of failure to report a missing child. Her bond is set at $300,000.
With New Wire Services
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