A courageous Canadian father died attempting to save his 5-year-old daughter who was swept out to sea during California’s catastrophic flash flooding.
Yuji Hu, from Calgary, Alberta, was with his wife and two children at Garrapata State Beach in Carmel when tragedy struck Friday, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office announced.
The 39-year-old watched a large wave engulf his young daughter and drag her into the water before he raced in to save her.
Waves estimated between 15 and 20 feet pushed the two out further into the ocean.
“He jumped into the water to try to rescue his daughter, and in the process, mom also jumped into the water. It was reported to us that dad had a hold of his daughter at one point,” Monterey County Sheriff’s commander Andres Rosas said, according to NBC Bay Area.
The girl’s mother had dove into the waters in an attempt to help Hu, but was unsuccessful in reaching her family. However, she was able to get back on shore, where her two-year-old child was waiting.
Hu was pulled out of the water by another beachgoer and an off-duty California State Parks Officer, who administered life-saving techniques on Hu.
Hu was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The unidentified mother was briefly hospitalized overnight in stable condition as she received treatment for hypothermia. She was released on Saturday.
The 2-year-old child was not harmed during the disaster.
Hu’s daughter, who was last seen wearing a white shirt, remains missing, officials said. The outlet reported that the child was not wearing a life jacket.
A multi-agency, large-scale search for the young child took place all of Saturday before it was suspended at sunset.
A recovery mission will continue along the shores of Garrapata State Beach after the suspension of the search and rescue operation.
The grieving family asked for privacy and wasn’t commenting on Hu’s death, police said.
An atmospheric river battered much of the central and southern coasts of California since Wednesday, bringing deadly flash floods, landslides, strong winds and heavy rain to the region.
Coastal regions of the Golden State saw as much as an inch of rain per hour on Saturday, with over four inches falling in Santa Barbara County on Friday.
The long plume of tropical moisture that formed over the Pacific Ocean before making its deadly approach to California on Wednesday.
A 71-year-old delivery driver was killed near Sacramento after stopping his car on the Pleasant Grove Creek Bridge.
The road had been engulfed by two to three feet of water, and the man called 911 but the current was too strong and swept the Mazda away into a creek.
First responders discovered the man unconscious and declared him dead after being unable to resuscitate him.
At least four people were killed when their wooden boat carrying suspected migrants from Mexico capsized in the rough waters off the coast of San Diego.
Four other occupants of the vessel were hospitalized.
More than a foot of snow is forecast to fall on the Sierra Nevada Mountain region.
The troubling storm threatened to bring disaster to the Los Angeles region, still recovering from the deadly Palisades and Eaton Fires in January.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for high-risk properties in the Palisades and Eaton fire burn areas through Sunday morning.
“Due to the potential for debris flows, an Evacuation Warning remains in effect within and around all recent burn scar areas, and select vulnerable properties remain under Evacuation Orders,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X.
With Post wires
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