As heavy storms pass through central California, leaving nearly 20 people dead, the search still continues for missing 5-year-old Kyle Doan, who was tragically pulled away from his mother’s arms while trying to escape the floodwaters. Kyle and his mother, Lindsy Doan, were on their way to school where she is a special education teacher and Kyle was attending kindergarten. Their car began to be engulfed with floodwaters, so Kyle and his mother fled the vehicle. The five-year-old wasn’t too sure of the severity of the incident, but he tried his best to calm down his mother. “Don’t worry, Mommy,” the boy said, his father, Brian Doan, recalled. “He wasn’t quite processing what was going on. But he was so calm talking to my wife while they were still in the car,” Doan told CNN. Once out of the car, Lindsy held onto a tree while also holding Kyle, but with the flying debris and the strong floodwaters, Kyle slipped away from his mothers arms. Kyle’s mother was rescued from the floodwaters, but Kyle has still not been found.

While devastated, Brian Dian insisted that Lindsy was doing what she thought was best. “She made the best decisions she could. I got to keep stressing that. She couldn’t stay in the car with him. The flows were going to overpower the car later on… They got out. That was the right thing to do.” According to Doan, the vehicle was later found upside down and covered in mud and debris.

Rescue crews have been searching for Kyle for days, at times, their search parties being delayed due to the severe weather that is still happening in California. Brian Doan gave his heartbreaking thoughts on his hopefulness of finding Kyle. “The hard thing to say to a lot of people at this point in time is, it’s not a rescue. It’s a recovery,” he said, his voice breaking. “And that’s something no parent wants to admit. And I kind of knew it after the first night… And it’s a hard, hard concept, especially when it’s your kid.”

Brian said that Kyle was a silly, talkative and outgoing child who loved to dance. He added, “He was just looking forward to getting back to school.”

We pray for Kyle and his family in hopes that God will bring him home safely.