The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s dive team continued their search Thursday for four unaccounted for victims swept away by a swift current in an Ontario storm drain amid heavy rains Tuesday.
“By the time the water washed me down it, there was no way…there was nothing to hold onto,” Cassandra Gonzalez, one of the survivors, told KTLA.
Gonzalez was among the 10 people reported Tuesday morning that had been swept away when the water swelled from heavy rains.
“I was right there under Princeton and Grove,” she said. “The water came and there was just nothing we could do, and then my friend … Anthony Lopez, he was behind me.”
The San Bernardino County Coroner later identified the 63-year-old after his body was recovered nearly three miles from where they were swept away near John Galvin Park.
Gonzalez said that Lopez tried to save her.
“Once you pass 4th Street, you go through a dark tunnel. It’s completely black in there, comes out at I Street…I just tried to make sure I stayed in the middle of the tunnel, so I wouldn’t get caught in any debris on the other end. And then when I would go under water, I would just try to make sure I came back up. I made sure I wouldn’t hit the middles that separated the tunnels,” she said.
Gonzalez was eventually pulled to safety by rescuers, but she fears her best friend, Madeline Velasquez, was among the four people who are still missing.
Velasquez’s family has been at the basin every day, waiting for any sign of hope.
“I’m praying for a miracle, that they bring her home,” Tricia Francis Velasquez, the victim’s mother, said. “But if not, it’s like bring her home so that I can lay her to rest and have my closure with her.”
Dan Bell, with the City of Ontario, told KTLA that there was a request made to turn off all water flowing into the basin from the wash where the incident began while recovery efforts continue.
In the last 24 hours, the water has receded roughly 10 feet. The sheriff’s dive team was still using sonar technology in their search.
Despite the many no-trespassing signs, officials said the local homeless population often makes their down to the channels, making it extremely dangerous for them when it rains.