A teenage girl was swept to her death in the historic Texas flooding after saving the rest of her family. Malaya Hammond, 17, was traveling to a Christian summer camp with her family at 5 a.m. Saturday when they drove off a bridge covered by flooding — sweeping their van into Marble Falls, according to a Facebook post from a family friend, Mikki Willis.
The brave teen managed to open the door of the van, saving her parents, Liz and Matthew, and her younger siblings — Khalil, 16, and Surya, 14 — who would otherwise have been trapped under water.
“In total darkness, they fought to stay above water,” Willis wrote — but “Malaya was swept away by the fierce current.”
Her family searched “day and night — by land, air, and water,” Willis said, but the teen’s body was found two days later, on Monday. “The family is going through the unthinkable right now,” Willis wrote of their overwhelming grief.
“As the eldest, Malaya set the standard. Ask anyone who knows her, and they’ll tell you: Malaya is one of the most gentle, compassionate young women they’ve ever met,” the family friend said.
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