2 Bodies Found As Storms Leave Texas

Mayes (Okla.) County commissioner Melvin Pritchett, pointing, shows county road crew employees, from left, Billy Nelson and Rick Motter, and Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Toy Thilges the damage done so far by a sink hole on County Road 437 west of Locust Grove, Okla., Thursday, July 5, 2007. The hole opened up in the road early Thursday morning following weeks of rain and floodiing in northeastern Oklahoma. (AP Photo/The Tulsa World, Stephen Holman) (Stephen Holman - AP)

SAN ANTONIO -- Two people, including a boy who was swept from his father's arms by the fast-moving currents of the Brazos River, were found dead as the heavy rains that have pounded parts of Texas for weeks were leaving the state Friday.

The four-day search for 6-year-old Cesar Aparicio ended Friday when his body was found on a beach about 15 miles from where he washed into the Gulf of Mexico, said Freeport Police Chief Jeff Pynes.

A volunteer searcher in a private plane spotted the body on a remote stretch of uninhabited beach, Pynes said late Friday. The boy's body was taken to the Galveston County Medical Examination's office.

"The family has been notified and we believe this will be his son," Pynes said. "This is a pretty tough deal but it gives the family some closure."

The boy was at a family gathering on Bryan Beach, where the Brazos River feeds into the Gulf of Mexico about 60 miles south of Houston, when he was swept into floodwaters, Pynes said.

The boy's father and another relative were found clinging to trees and rescued Tuesday afternoon. Since then, Freeport authorities had been searching for the boy but were hampered by intermittent heavy rains and a river that, at 47 feet, was 4 feet above flood stage, said Pynes.

The river was moving so fast that it was pushing out 20 miles into the Gulf on Friday, and taking everything caught upstream _ from cars to refrigerators to trees _ with it. One rescue boat borrowed to aid in the search was damaged by the debris, Pynes said.

The river is "in really bad shape and very, very dangerous," he said. "That tree is a missile, essentially."

At Fort Hood, the body of a civilian worker was found downstream from where his vehicle was pulled out of a creek, post spokeswoman Col. Diane Battaglia said. Isidro Felix Alicea-Acosta, 74, went missing Wednesday night after a fireworks show.

"An hour before he crossed it, the creek was fine," Battaglia said. "He was caught in a flash flood that he was not aware of."

In Fort Worth on Friday night, rescue personnel and divers searched for a missing 26-year-old man whose rubber raft overturned on the Trinity River. A 23-year-old man who was also on the raft was rescued on the side of the river, Fire Department spokesman Lt. Kent Worley said.

The men had little experience rafting and were not wearing life preservers, Worley said.