Elsha Guel pushed her 2-year-old son’s stroller into a narrow concrete tunnel to escape a pounding hailstorm Monday night. But the refuge became a trap when a wall of floodwater swept through the tunnel and Guel lost her grip on the stroller.
Officials called it a “50-year storm event” – the deluge that washed Jose Matthew Jauregui Jr. down a swollen ditch feeding the rampaging South Platte River and swept away a young man at Bible Park in southeast Denver. Neither had been found Tuesday evening.
Guel was clinging to a concrete barrier when firefighters reached her. She was so distraught when she learned they hadn’t found Jose that she let go and the flood carried her away.
“She said she no longer wanted to live without her child,” said Lt. Phil Champagne, Denver Fire Department spokesman.
Firefighters rescued Guel about 200 yards downstream, but her son wasn’t found. A stroller believed to be the boy’s was discovered about 1 1/2 miles away on the South Platte, Champagne said.
Monday night’s swift storm dropped up to 1 1/2 inches of rain on parts of Denver in an hour and tripled the South Platte’s flow.
On Tuesday, firefighters scouring the shores of the South Platte were joined by a few of the boy’s relatives, including his great-uncle Sam Bobian, 52.
“I don’t think survival is possible,” Bobian said. “But it is important to find the boy’s body.”
Guel and her toddler had been on their usual afternoon walk in Rude Park on Monday, said the boy’s great-aunt Julie Guzman, who spoke at a news conference Tuesday.
When it began to hail, they ducked into the 7- by 7-foot underpass for pedestrians and bicyclists at West Howard Place and Decatur Street alongside Lakewood Gulch. A surge of floodwater suddenly shot down the gulch and into the parallel tunnel.
“As waters grew more swift, she was knocked down,” Champagne said. “The (tunnel) exits and entrances were such a long way away. There was no area for retreat.
“You can only imagine the horror of the mother” as her baby’s stroller was ripped out of her hands, he said.
When the first rescue crews arrived, she was clinging to a concrete barrier. They attempted to lower a ladder and then tried to send in a diver, but the water was too swift, Champagne said.
“All she wanted to know was if her baby had been rescued,” he said. Firefighters had to tell her no.
“Per the department’s protocols, we had to rescue the most visible victim,” Champagne said. “That was her.”
The gully winds through a narrow channel – with boulders and a steep grassy slope on one side and a 10-foot concrete wall on the other – toward the South Platte. The family lives just two blocks from the underpass.
“Our family is in shock, and we’re devastated with this tragic accident,” said Guzman, the great-aunt. She thanked police officers and firefighters who helped in the search.
“We just ask that you let us grieve and keep us in your thoughts and prayers,” she said.
Guel declined to speak to reporters.
Champagne said 26 firefighters joined the search Monday night. Tuesday’s search for what by then was presumed to be the boy’s body extended down the Platte into Adams County, about 7 miles away.
Denver firefighter Brian Jenkinson used a long metal pole Tuesday to probe the water. The boy’s body could have been lodged against a rock or washed into an eddy, he said.
The rapid current and murky water made it difficult to search even after the waters had receded, and it may be months before the river drops to a level that allows the body to be found, Jenkinson said.
“A lot of us have children,” said another searcher, Denver fire Lt. Dan Flesner. “It’s not a happy thing, but we’re glad to do it.”
“He was a happy little kid,” Bobian, the great-uncle, said. “He used to make me laugh, the way he ate. He always had a smile on his face.”
He called Guel a great mom.
“She was just going home,” Bobian said. “I don’t believe there was anything she could do.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
