Hidden dangers took the lives of four children and three adults as Hurricane Irene inflicted tragedy in Broward County.
Five of the victims were electrocuted by fallen power lines concealed in floodwater as they walked in Weston and Cooper City. And two men drowned in Miramar and Coral Springs when they drove into canals, apparently confused by flooding that made roads indistinguishable from waterways.
Mary Ann Ruda, 48, died in a brave effort to save her 11-year-old twin sons, Max and Mike, and neighbor Douglas Hemphill, 14, when she saw them being electrocuted Friday night in a pool of water at Saddle Club Road and Fern Drive.
“It was just like her to give her own life trying to save her kids,” said Erika Colbrunn, 26, Ruda’s eldest daughter from a previous marriage. “She saw the boys and saw what was happening and she went in without a second’s thought to try to help them.”
Colbrunn, who lives in Phoenix, Ariz., is married to former Florida Marlins baseball player Greg Colbrunn, who now plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ruda also had two older twin sons, Kurt and Karl, 22.
The twins and Douglas were walking the Rudas’ dog about 9:40 p.m. Ruda saw the three boys and the dog collapse and ran to try to save them.
Ruda, an artist in her spare time, helped set up a clinic for AIDS patients in South Miami.
“She sat with [the patients], held their hands and hugged them while they got their treatments,” Colbrunn said. “She was all about helping other people, but her family always came first.”
Ruda’s husband, Thomas, who lost his whole family, was in no condition to comment, said a friend outside their house in the Townhome Village subdivision. The twins attended Tequesta Trace Middle School.
Douglas Hemphill, a ninth-grader at Western High School in Davie, lived with his mother, Helon Hemphill, and younger sister, Kimberly. His father, William Hemphill, lives in Pembroke Pines.
Neighbors placed flowers at the accident scene Saturday night and were putting up white ribbons — to represent love and purity — on every house on Fern Drive.
A cousin of Douglas’ mother Helon said the family was not ready to comment.
Douglas’ neighbor and friend, Alex Garcia, 14, heard the boys’ screams for help.
“They were walking the dog and then I heard, ‘Help, help,'” said Alex, who was behind them. “I didn’t want to get near. I got scared and went back home.”
“It’s awfully tempting after a storm or when the rain lets up to go out or let your kids lay in the puddles,” said Cheryl Stopnick, a Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. “But this is a tragic example of why this is a dangerous idea.”
Aaron Crompton’s family thought it was safe for him and his younger brother, Mikey, to go out, too. The boys waded through the water in their Cooper City neighborhood on their way to buy candy and sodas. Aaron, 13, an eighth-grader at Pioneer Middle School, and Mikey, 12, had sloshed around in the street earlier in the day, playing football with neighbors.
“You know how kids are,” said Patrick Lee, 43, who lives with the boys and their mom. “Their mother and I were saying, ‘Cooper City is such a safe place.'”
About 10 p.m. Friday, Mikey burst into the house and said Aaron was electrocuted.
On the way home, Aaron picked up a live wire in about a foot of water in front of City Hall, at Southwest 90th Avenue and Southwest 51st Street. Mikey tried to knock Aaron loose from the wire and received a shock himself. But he couldn’t save his big brother.
Lee and the boys’ mother, Alison Sowa, 44, drove two blocks to where they found Aaron. “He still had the wire in his hand and across his belly,” Lee said.
Aaron played outside linebacker for the Cooper City Optimists Cowboys football team. The 150-pound weight class team will not play its game today in honor of their friend.
About 1 a.m. Saturday, Steve Anthony Hera used his 1998 Toyota Corolla to push and rescue a friend’s car that stalled in floodwaters. Shortly after, Hera, 35, drove his car into a canal at LaSalle Boulevard and Utopia Drive in Miramar.
A witness told police that she and a group of other people repeatedly threw a rope to Hera, but he was unable to grab it.
Hera, who had crawled out of the car window, went underwater and did not resurface. Police and divers found his body later.
Hera was going from his Carol City home to work the 4 a.m. shift as a machine operator at Monier Roof Tile in Pompano Beach.
Even hours later under the morning sun, it was impossible to tell where the road ended and the canal began, said Hera’s brother-in-law Hubert Gucoul, who went to the scene after learning of his death.
Hera knew streets would be flooded but set out shortly after midnight, Gucoul said, determined to get to work anyway. “He said, ‘When I reach, man, I’ll call,” Gucoul said.
Hera’s call never came. Instead, about 6 a.m., the family heard from Memorial Hospital Pembroke in Pembroke Pines, where Hera was pronounced dead.
Hera, who moved to South Florida from Jamaica two years ago, was quiet and hard working, an electronics whiz who fixed broken household appliances, family members said.
In Coral Springs, another man’s effort to make it to his new job despite the dreadful weather also ended in death. David Brent, 30, was on his way to work at the Lowe’s warehouse at Sample Road and 441. His body was found floating in the canal near his pick-up truck about 8:45 a.m. Saturday, said Coral Springs police Sgt. Rich Nicorvo.
Brent lived with his grandmother Alice, 80, in the 10700 block of La Placida Drive in Coral Springs.
Brent had only worked at Lowe’s three days. He also worked detailing cars for Elite Detailing.
Shortly before Brent’s truck went into a canal in the 12300 block of Northwest 35th Street, he used his cell phone to call his grandmother about 9:30 p.m. Friday.
“He called and said he was driving through some deep water, and that he didn’t know if he could make it to work,” Alice Brent said “I told him to turn around and come home.”
Staff Writers Lane Kelley, Miriam Stawowy, Alan Diaz, Peter Bernard, Kathy Bushouse, Donna Pazdera, Kai Hill and Bill Hirschman contributed to this report.
Staff Writer Paula McMahon can be reached at or 954-356-4533.
