72-year-old man found drowned in car yards from his Washington driveway, officials say

As flood waters surged around his Washington home, a 72-year-old man went to move his car to higher ground but never came back, police say.

It was just before 6 a.m. on Jan. 7 when Delbert Pratt’s wife called 911, according to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office. Pratt had gone out to the driveway of their Cosmopolis home, and now he and the car were nowhere to be found, she told first responders.

Heavy rain brought flooding to much of Washington state over the weekend, damaging homes, closing roads and highways, and threatening lives, McClatchy News reported.

Police were not able to reach the Pratt residence due to flooding, but family members and area firefighters searched the vicinity of the home, the sheriff’s office said. Searchers found nothing that day and feared the worst - that Pratt and the car “somehow left the driveway” and slipped into a nearby embankment, where rushing waters carried them away.

Waters receded the following day and officials’ fears were confirmed. Firefighters found Pratt dead inside his car, submerged 100 yards west of the driveway.

“Investigators believe the vehicle was swept off the driveway by strong moving floodwaters and quickly submerged into deep water,” the sheriff’s office said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Mr. Pratt.”

In Grays Harbor County, emergency management officials have set up a shelter at the fairgrounds for residents displaced by the flooding.

Extreme weather wreaked havoc further inland as well, including Seattle, where the National Weather Service said the first week of January was the 5th wettest on record in Seattle.

The city’s fire department captured video of a home slipping off its foundations, while firefighters rescued a man trapped inside the basement.

In Lewis County, just west of Grays Harbor County, at least 21 people needed rescue by first responders, CBS reported.

This story was originally published January 9, 2022 at 12:01 PM with the headline "72-year-old man found drowned in car yards from his Washington driveway, officials say."