SAN ANTONIO – What appears to be a drowning death along Salado Creek has had a ripple effect among others on the East Side.
San Antonio police officers said they found a man, clinging to a tree branch, in the rain-swollen creek on Tuesday morning.
A passerby had noticed him calling for help shortly before 7 a.m.
Officers who were first to arrive told KSAT 12 News that the man, initially, was talking to them.
However, before anyone could reach him, they said he suddenly stopped communicating.
When EMS crews pulled him from the water, he was dead, according to the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD).
Officers said they are still investigating his death. It is still unclear how and why the man ended up in the water.
Hours later, though, it was clear the heavy rain had caused fast-moving water to overtake some of the walkways in J Street Park.
“How did that water get to the point where somebody died? That’s what shocked me,” Nicholas Welch said when he stopped by to visit the park later in the morning. “It kind of scares me.”
Betty Osborne heard about the fatality on the news and stopped by to see it firsthand.
“I never come down here, for a walk or nothing,” Osborne said. “I don’t want to drown and die.”
Welch said he is also concerned about safety following the man’s death.
As he crept closer to a section of the rain-swollen creek, the man said he planned to be extra cautious from now on.
“It’s not a game when it’s raining like that,” Welch said. “When they say it, take heed to those warnings because there is a way to get swallowed (by the water).”
An SAFD spokesperson said the apparent drowning was one of approximately two dozen calls related to high water that it received between 11 a.m. Monday and early Tuesday morning.
In at least one case, SAFD said firefighters had to use a ladder to rescue people from a car that had gotten caught up in the water.
No other injuries were reported.
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