FLOOD: HUNDREDS SEARCH FOR LOST BOY

MARBLE HILL -- A 5-year-old boy swept downstream late Sunday night in a flash flood was still missing late Monday, despite the efforts of hundreds of rescue workers to find him.

"We're not going to give up hope," said Bollinger County Sheriff Dan Mesey late Monday. "We will continue to search until we find that boy."

Austin Chandler was on a fishing trip with his father and step-mother at Crooked Creek south of Marble Hill Sunday.

The family was in a pick-up truck when heavy rains began Sunday night. When the creek began to swell rapidly, the three moved to the top of the pick-up truck and his father put a life preserver on Austin.

At about midnight, a log jolted the pick-up truck, knocking all three into the swollen creek.

The parents, Steve and Julie Chandler of Marble Hill, were able to hold on for several hours, but Austin was swept downstream. Officials said the water rose very rapidly.

"As they went into the water, the father grabbed the little boy," the sheriff said. "The water was so strong it took the father under, and trying to fight, he lost his grip on the boy.

"The step mother said she heard the boy screaming as he went by her."

Steve Chandler was trying to drag his son to shore when the water pulled him under and he lost his grip on Austin, the sheriff said.

Julie Chandler was able to grab a tree limb along the banks of the creek and hang on, trapped until her husband was able to make it to shore and rescue her.

Mesey said the family was in a part of Big Crooked Creek where Little Crooked Creek and Hurricane Creek meet.

"That's why the water rose as fast as it did," he said. "This was a flash flood in the truest sense of the word."

After Steve and Julie Chandler made it to shore, they wandered through the dark woods, looking for a place they could summon help, the sheriff said.

The sheriff's department was notified at about 6 a.m.

Mesey said about 200 volunteers and rescue workers searched the creek and surrounding area Monday until dark. A few remained to search through the night, he said.

"Now we're beginning to worry about (the rescue workers) getting snake bit, or falling into the creek," the sheriff said late Monday night. "It's much safer to start up again at daybreak."

Weeds are about four feet high along the creek.

Two helicopters, LifeBeat air ambulance and one from the Missouri Highway Patrol, aided in the search. People on horseback, in boats and on ATVs also tried to find the boy.

The sheriff said most of the rescue workers know the family and the little boy.

"This really hits home," he said.

Mesey said it is expected the water will fall significantly by daybreak. But hope of finding the boy was growing thin Monday night. It is not known if the life preserver stayed on the boy, but it was not found by rescue workers.

"We found items from the truck and items from the boat some four miles downstream from where it happened," he said, adding that the water was moving very fast.

The creek begins in Marquand in Madison County, runs through Bollinger County, the Diversion Channel and empties into the Mississippi River.

Mesey said rescue workers will begin searching again this morning.

"This county is unique in the way they really take care of their own. When someone in this county needs help, everybody stops what they're doing to help," he said.

Staff writer Peggy Scott contributed information for this story.