Three brothers — all under the age of 10 — have died after falling into a privately owned pond that had frozen over during Winter Storm Fern, according to their mother and local officials.
Cheyenne Hangaman said she was staying with her children at a friend’s home across the street from the pond in Bonham, Texas — about two hours northeast of Dallas — when she learned the boys had gone onto the ice Monday.
“I warned them not to go near the pond,” she said, adding that her daughter told her the boys had fallen in.
Hangaman said she ran toward the pond and tried to reach her sons as they fought to stay above the water.
“They were just screaming, telling me to help them,” she told The Associated Press. “And I watched all of them struggle… I watched all of them fight.”
She said she ran as far as she could across the ice before falling into the frigid water herself. Each attempt to lift a child onto the ice triggered more breaking, she said.
“I would grab one, try to put him on ice, but the ice just kept breaking every time I would sit him up there,” she said. “I would just keep trying to go to each one of them… and it was only me — like I couldn’t help them all by myself.”
Hangaman identified her sons as Howard, 6, Kaleb, 8, and EJ, 9.
Officials said Kaleb and EJ were pulled from the water by first responders and a neighbor. Howard was later recovered after an extensive search, according to the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office.
Hangaman said someone threw her a rope to help pull her out of the pond.
“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move,” she said. “By that time I knew that my kids were already gone. So I just had to try to fight for my life at that point.”
Winter Storm Fern death toll climbs past 60
The brothers are among more than 60 people reported dead in states affected by Winter Storm Fern, as communities continue to assess damage and officials warn that the number could rise.
Reported storm-related deaths included:
- Louisiana: 8 deaths linked to hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning, and car crashes
- Tennessee: 3 deaths tied to weather-related incidents
- Massachusetts: A 51-year-old woman was killed after being struck by a snowplow; her 47-year-old husband was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries
- Arkansas: A 17-year-old died in a sledding crash; a 40-year-old died in an ATV incident
- Michigan: A 19-year-old was found dead after last being seen walking without a coat
- New York: 10 deaths in New York City described as “weather-related circumstances”; on Long Island, a 60-year-old man died while shoveling snow outside a church
- Kansas: A 28-year-old was found dead after leaving a bar without a coat
- Texas: In addition to the three boys, a 16-year-old girl died in a sledding crash, and a man was found frozen to death in Austin
- Pennsylvania: Three people ages 60 to 84 died while removing snow
- Mississippi: 2 deaths from weather-related incidents
- Ohio: A 49-year-old man was hit by a snowplow while driving a snowmobile
- South Carolina: A 96-year-old woman died of hypothermia
- New Jersey: A 67-year-old man died while shoveling snow
- Kentucky: Gov. Andy Beshear announced 10 storm-related deaths on Wednesday
Separate sledding tragedy in Texas
In another incident in Texas, two 16-year-old girls died in a sledding crash in Frisco, outside Dallas, police said.
One of the girls, Elizabeth Angle, died soon after the crash. The other, Grace Birto, was later taken off life support on Tuesday, according to her family.
