Many Many Prayers Needed

for this family and my family.  As soon as the names were released, a horrible chill went through my body.  We know them.  We grew up with them.  Matt and Megihann were good friends in college.  My dad's wife (Megan) and Megihann are now good friends.  This happened on the road that I grew up on and I know exactly where at.  I know how badly this floods because my mom has gotten caught in it before and we used to play in it when it would flood.  Megan was supposed to watch Megihann's kids this morning and took my little sister and brothers out to go pick them up.  She realized that she couldn't get through some of the flooding (taking a different direction) and went back home.  She called Megihann and asked if she could bring her kids in instead because she had a bigger vehicle.  It is a horrible set of circumstances - popping over the hill in the dark down into this huge mess.  Once you try to back up the hill, you just drop the engine down into the waters.  This is a really bad rickety backwoods country road that floods horribly in this spot.  Megihann was able to get the two little boys out of the vehicle and onto the roof.  However, they kept slipping and she had to hold onto them.  She was unable to reach the girls.  Megan is feeling horribly guilty right now and blaming herself a bit.  It also so easily could have been them.  She is torn up, my dad will be a wreck and think a million what ifs.  Just a horrible horrible loss.  Please keep everyone in your prayers.

 

These children were all Megihann's.  She had already adopted the older two and was in the process of adopting the younger three (all brothers and sisters).

 

2 children die in flood waters

Fulton and Kosciusko county sheriff's deputies investigated the deaths of two children early today. The SUV they were riding in was apparently swept into flood waters. Sheriff Walker Conley said Shay Leininger, 5, was pronounced dead at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne and Ashley Pruitt, 2, at Kosciusko Community Hospital. Three other children in the vehicle, Mariah Leininger, 4, Michael McDaniel, 1, and Canari Trigg, age 3 months, survived, as did the driver, Megihann K. Leininger, 29. They were treated and released at Kosciusko Community Hospital. At the scene this morning, Fulton County roads 600 North just west of the Kosciusko County line, the roadway wasn't visible. It had been flooded with as much as seven feet deep of water. The vehicle was swept off the road and into a field. Rescuers used underwater diving gear and a boat to reach the vehicle. Megihann Leininger told investigators she started through water on the roadway, realized it was too deep, started to back out and then the vehicle stalled. She was unable to get the two victims from the vehicle and was on the roof of the vehicle when rescuers arrived. Kosciusko County deputies and emergency workers responded first to the 7:55 a.m. call. Fulton County deputies went later in the morning. Tuesday, January 08, 2008