Five people are known to have died and two small children are missing following a series of flash floods in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday 15 July 2023. In one incident a family of six from South Carolina were caught in a flash flood when Houghs Creek in Upper Makefield swelled to become a fast moving river following a heavy thunder storm, sweeping their car away. The oldest of the three children, a four-year-old boy, has been found alive, as was the children's father and grandmother, but their mother drowned in the water and the other two children, described as a nine-month-old boy and a two-year-old girl are still missing. Three other cars were swept away in the flood, and four more people are reported to have died, all after apparently leaving their vehicles in an attempt to reach safety.
The flood is the latest of rain storm related events which have battered both coasts of the United States this year. Heavy rains are not unfamiliar in many parts of the US, but the frequency and number of events happening this year, combined with severe heatwaves in other parts of the country, has caused widespread alarm, with many climate scientists citing global warming as a direct cause of these events.
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