{"id":108165,"date":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108165\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","slug":"zaria-miller-florida-girl-dies-after-sudden-surge-of-water-sweeps-her-down-a-storm-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108165\/","title":{"rendered":"Zaria Miller: Florida girl dies after sudden surge of water sweeps her down a storm drain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The harrowing final moments of a five-year-old girl swept into a storm drain in Florida have been captured in gut-wrenching 911 calls, as her family grieved the tragedy that ended with her death in the hospital days later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In Sarasota, young Zaria Miller was playing with her brothers near a culvert while her grandmother looked on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Around 6.30pm, heavy rain and a water main break created a sudden surge of water, turning the drain into a deadly current that pulled the child underground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Her grandmother, frantic and sobbing, dialled 911.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cShe got sucked into the culvert,\u201d she cried, said <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/news\/15077830\/zaria-miller-storm-drain-911-call-sarasota-florida\/\">The Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThere\u2019s a water line flowing right out here \u2026 We were letting the kids play, and she got sucked underneath into the culvert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Struggling to breathe as she wept, the woman begged for help while telling the dispatcher her granddaughter was trapped beneath the road. At one point, she shouted: \u201cGod, why did we let her swim in there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A passerby who witnessed the chaos also called authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Children can be heard screaming and crying in the background of the second call before dispatchers confirmed both calls were for the same incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">By the time emergency crews arrived, Zaria had been carried about 100 yards through the drainage system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Firefighters lifted storm grates, pulled her from the water and immediately began CPR.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition but died on Thursday, four days after the accident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Her parents confirmed the heartbreaking news in a Facebook post, thanking first responders for recovering their daughter and the community for its support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/zaria-miller\">GoFundMe<\/a> campaign has since been launched to help with medical costs, bills and funeral expenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt is with a broken heart I have to share that Zaria has received the ultimate healing, and is in the arms of Jesus,\u201d the fundraiser organiser wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe family is grateful for all the love and support shown over the past few days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The harrowing final moments of a five-year-old girl swept into a storm drain in Florida have been captured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,1720],"class_list":["post-108165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}