Sep 14, 2008 10:54 pm US/Central
2 Drown Trying to Save Child
Father And Son Go To Aid Of Child Who is Safe
CHESTERTON, Ind. (CBS) ―
Severe floods are to blame for two deaths in Indiana Sunday. Officials say a 10-year-old boy playing near an overflowing creek is alive after being swept away.
The force of the water pulled him through a culvert and he was rescued, but not before two neighbors jumped in and lost their lives, as CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports.
Mark Thanos, 48, and his father, 74-year-old John Thanos both jumped into the rushing waters of a ditch near their home. Family member say it's just who they were.
"You know when you get older that you're going to have kids and they're going to ask what happened to grandpa or great-grandpa and stuff like that and they're never going to have a chance to meet him, but you know they're going to have instant respect," said the victim's son, John Thanos.
It's a respect to honor his father Mark Thanos and grandfather John Thanos. Their family says the drowned earlier Sunday after a neighbor boy playing in a swollen creek went under.
"My stepmom heard a scream coming from outside," Thanos said.
She called for her husband and ran to help. He jumped into the water.
"He went in to save the kid and my grandpa probably went in to help my dad save my dad and they both were stuck under -- the pressure was too hard," Thanos said.
Mark Thanos was a teache rat Wheeler High School. He'd been sharing his knowledge with students for 20 years and also coached sports including baseball and basketball.
"He just knew so much and he taught me so well in everything" said the victim's son Michael Thanos. "It was amazing. And also that he died going to save a kid that got out."
Sunday night, some of the young people whose lives Thanos touched crowded into his family's basement to help them push out flood water.
"So many people are helping with that and friends and family," Michael Thanos said. "They're really helping me through this definitely."
And now the family is preparing to hold both funerals on Thursday.
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