Albert Aubrey “Al” Larsen

May 29, 1972 - August 30, 2003

(Note: discrepancy between the two dates of death -- Aug. 30 and Sept. 2; obituaries in the Dallas Morning News and the Star-Telegram had it wrong -- Sept. 2 was a Tuesday - Aug. 30 was a Saturday.)

Albert Aubrey "Al" Larsen (May 29, 1972 - August 30, 2003)

Al Larsen, a Technical Specialist, passed away September 2, 2003 in Kansas.
Funeral: Mass of a Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. Monday at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas with Father John Gremmels, celebrant.
Visitation: Rosary at 7:00 P.M. at Shannon Rufe Snow Funeral Chapel with the visitation following until 8:30.
Loving husband of 5 years, 8 months, and 3 days; son, and brother, died saving others from a flash flood on the Kansas Turnpike south of Emporia on Saturday, September 2, 2003.
Al was born on May 29, 1972 in Spencer, Iowa.

He obtained a B. B. A. in Finance from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa in 1995 and an M. B. A. from the University of Dallas in Dallas, Texas in May 2002. Al and his wife have resided in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex since 1997. He worked for Centex Homes in Dallas for 3 years as a Financial Analyst and as a Network Analyst. He then worked at Verizon Corporate Office in Las Colinas for 3 1/2 years as a Technical Specialist.
Survivors: Al is survived by his wife, Elizabeth-Anne Larsen of Fort Worth, Texas; grandmother, Marynelle Larsen of Nevada, Iowa; father, Theodore Larsen of Spencer, Iowa, mother, Betty Nordby of Gilbert, Arizona, sisters, Debbie Downey and husband Doug Downey of Alamogordo, New Mexico, Audra Larsen of Phoenix, Arizona; In-Laws, three nieces and nephews, and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.
Shannon Rufe Snow Funeral Chapel
6001 Rufe Snow Drive (817) 514-9100
- published in the Dallas Morning News on September 6, 2003.


Albert Aubrey "Al" Larsen (May 29, 1972 - August 30, 2003)

Al Larsen, a technical specialist, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2003, in Kansas.
Mass of a Christian Burial: 11 a.m. Monday at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, with Father John Gremmels, celebrant.
Rosary: 7 p.m. at Shannon Rufe Snow Funeral Chapel with the visitation following until 8:30.
Survivors: Wife, Elizabeth-Anne Larsen; grandmother, Marynelle Larsen; father, Theodore Larsen; mother, Betty Nordby; sisters, Debbie Downey and husband, Doug Downey and Audra Larsen; in-laws; three nieces and nephews; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.
- published in the Star-Telegram on September 6, 2003


Kansas Turnpike Authority
Memorial to Jacobs Creek Flash Flood
Project:
On the evening of August 30, 2003 a heavy rain event caused storm water to swell out of the banks of the usually dry Jacobs Creek. Located just south of Emporia, the small stream was now flooding the Kansas Turnpike. Two of the stranded motorist, Al Larsen and Ryan Lane are credited with saving the lives of seven other travellers that night; getting them out of their cars to higher ground. A wall of water caused by a heavy down burst, washed the stranded vehicles down stream, taking six lives with it. The memorial was to celebrate the survivors and remember the valiant efforts of Al and Ryan.


Recognition of Heroism -- Remembering
Posted: Friday, November 21, 2003
by The Capital-Journal editorial board
Wednesday, the Kansas Turnpike Authority recognized the heroes who came to the aid of their fellow travelers when a freak flash flood occurred in August.
The Recognition of Heroism Ceremony at the Matfield Green Service Area honored the late Albert A. Larsen, Fort Worth, and Ryan Lane, Lawrence, as well as all emergency personnel who responded to the Jacob Creek flood Aug. 30, which killed six people.
Larsen and Lane were honored with Honorary Trooper Awards. Larsen's widow, Elizabeth-Anne, accepted his award.
In addition, plans were unveiled for a memorial park at the site to commemorate the lives of those affected by the flood.
It is a fitting tribute to those who died and to those who risked their lives to save others.


He 'helped other people first'
Funeral services for Al Larsen, a Fort Worth man who drowned after floodwaters overtook Interstate 35 in Kansas, will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2016 Willis Lane in Keller.
Elizabeth-Anne Larsen, Mr. Larsen's wife, said she believes her husband, 31, died saving other people's lives. She said she spoke with several people who said he carried a 79-year-old woman to safety and moved several others to higher ground as the water began to rise.
"At first, to be honest, I was so mad at him," she said. "I didn't want a hero, I really didn't ... but after all these accounts came in, I realized that was just how he was. He always helped other people first, before himself."
Mr. Larsen's body was found Tuesday near a lake about two miles from the interstate, also known as the Kansas Turnpike. The flooding occurred Aug. 30.
"He knew what he was doing, and he knew he didn't belong there in the water - that it wasn't safe," Mrs. Larsen said. "But he kept going back."
Born in Spencer, Iowa, Mr. Larsen grew up in the area and, graduated from Clay Central High School 1991. He attended colleges in northwest Iowa, where he played football, for two years before transferring to University of Iowa. He graduated with a degree in finance in 1995.
After graduation, he spent two years in Los Angeles working on a modeling career and as an accountant.
Mr. Larsen married Elizabeth-Anne Trevino in 1997, and the couple moved to Fort Worth so she could attend law school at Southern Methodist University.
He worked for Centex Homes in Dallas as a financial analyst from 1997 to 2000, and had been a technical specialist at the Verizon corporate office since 2000.
He received a master's degree in business administration from the University of Dallas in 2002.
In addition to his wife of Fort Worth, Mr. Larsen is survived by grandmother Marynelle Larsen of Nevada, Iowa; father Theodore Larsen of Spencer; mother Betty Nordby of Gilbert, Ariz.; sisters Debbie Downey of Alamogordo, N.M., and Audra Larsen of Phoenix.

Monday, September 01, 2003
EMPORIA, Kan. The only other person who had not been accounted for was a man from Fort Worth, Texas, identified by the Eagle as Al Larsen, 31. Capt. Mark Conboy of the Kansas Highway Patrol said the man had called his wife Saturday evening, told her his Jeep had stalled and asked her to come get him. The wife, who arrived Sunday morning, has not heard from him since. "We believe he got out first and was out trying to help people," Conboy said. "That was just based on what he told his wife."
Found Dead After Kansas Floods
Tuesday, September 02, 2003 EMPORIA, Kan. - Searchers on Tuesday found the bodies of two people missing since floodwaters swept their vehicles off the Kansas Turnpike (search) over the weekend, including a woman whose four children drowned in the high water. The body of Al Larsen, 31, of Fort Worth, Texas, was found about two miles from the turnpike in a reservoir pond, said Emporia Fire Chief Jack Taylor. Larsen had been missing from a separate vehicle. Larsen drowned after heavy rain sent torrents of floodwaters over the Interstate 35 late Saturday Authorities have said Larsen called his wife, Elizabeth-Anne Larsen, Saturday evening, told her his Jeep had stalled and asked her to come get him. She went to the scene but did not hear from him. Officials said it was the first time in the 50-year history of the turnpike that particular area had flooded. Authorities said less than a quarter-mile of I-35 was damaged. Traffic remained restricted Tuesday to a single lane in each direction, as repair work got under way.

He was my great nephew
Greg Williams

Additional testament to this hero --
http://www.genealogybuff.com/ia/central/L/Larsen%20Al%202003%2008%2030.pdf

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobs_Creek_Flood)--
The flash flooding of Jacobs Creek at the Kansas Turnpike killed four children and their mother, as well as another man who was killed after rescuing four people trapped in their vehicles. In addition, it caused approximately $250,000 worth of property damage along the creek.
Water remained high in Jacobs Creek downstream of the turnpike for several days, impeding recovery efforts. Severely damaged vehicles and victims from the flood were found as far as 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the turnpike. The final victim was recovered on September 2 in a retention pond.
A memorial was constructed at the Matfield Green Rest Area on the Kansas Turnpike just southwest of Jacobs Creek. Of particular mention by the memorial is Al Larsen, the individual killed while trying to rescuing other trapped motorists. At a ceremony unveiling the memorial, then-governor Kathleen Sebelius recognized the actions of Larsen as well as Ryan Lane, who helped with the rescue efforts and survived the flood.
∼Albert, "Al", died a Hero, rescuing trapped motorists in a highway flood. His self sacrificing heroic actions are historically documented by those he saved. Survived by wife, Elizabeth Ann Larsen. Services and burial conducted at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas.

Inscription

BELOVED HUSBAND, SON, BROTHER, FRIEND
HERO
"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS." JOHN 15:13

2003 FLOOD KILLS SIX

EDITOR’S NOTE: Following are reports filed by Gazette staff during and after the flash flood near mile marker 116 Aug. 30, 2003 on the Kansas Turnpike. Six people died. The KTA built a memorial to the dead at the Matfield Green Service Area.
The bodies of a Missouri mother and a Texas man have been found, victims of a flash flood along the Kansas Turnpike late Saturday night. The woman’s four children also died in the flooding.
Authorities announced late this morning that Melissa Rogers of Liberty, Mo., and Albert Larsen, of Fort Worth, Texas had been found today. The bodies of Zachary Rogers, 5; Nicholas Rogers, 3; and Alenah Rogers, 1, were found Saturday in their family’s badly damaged van, which had been washed off the turnpike and carried more than a mile downstream. Searchers on Sunday morning found the body of their sister, 8-year-old Makenah Rogers.

In making today’s announcement, Jack Taylor, Emporia fire chief, said searchers had put the first boats on the water at 6:30 this morning. They found the two bodies about half a mile from the spot where their vehicles had been found, at the south end of a retention pond fed by Jacob Creek and about 200 feet into the water.
The water levels had receded dramatically, Taylor said, between Monday night and this morning. Melissa Rogers was found about 7:30 a.m. and the second body was found about 9:30 a.m. Rogers family members had positively identified her body, Mark Conboy, a Kansas Highway Patrol captain, said, and Larsen family members were expected to identify the second body later today.
A last call
The other missing person, Albert Larsen, 31, of Fort Worth, had called his wife, Elizabeth-Anne, on Saturday night to tell her of the high water on the road and let her know that his car had broken down. She drove from Fort Worth looking for him and made it to Kansas City before turning around and learning from a highway patrolman what had happened.
Water from Jacob Creek began to flood over the turnpike at 8:36 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 30, 2003) near Milepost 116, just over the Lyon-Chase county line. The creek had been fed by a near-constant rain that began Thursday night and ran into the weekend, totaling 10 to 12 inches in that area. By 9 p.m., the road was completely impassable.
Some cars stalled as water spilled onto the highway, others were trapped behind them. Robert Rogers and his family felt safe, because they were near the concrete median wall, a barrier weighing more than 10,000 pounds. They cracked the windows open anyway, just in case the water rose higher.

It did. Without warning, a wall of water broke through the barrier, sweeping seven vehicles off the road, including the Rogerses’ van.
Freak flood
Conboy said that at the flood’s peak, the turnpike was under 6 to 7 feet of water.
“Some of our people have been up on the turnpike for 30 years and never seen anything like that,” Conboy said. “It’s just a little creek we never paid any attention to.”
Several holes were gouged in the road’s surface and at least 150 feet of the median wall was either upended or washed away by the flood.
“Those sections of wall are 10,000 pounds and they’re all down in the creek like they’re popcorn,” Conboy said.
The cars fared no better, Several had windshields smashed, roofs caved in, doors mangled. One upended vehicle could be seen from the highway, while the others were washed farther from the road. About two miles from the turnpike, the flooding swelled a 33-acre pond to about 100 acres.
Several emergency agencies came together to search for survivors and the missing. The Kansas Highway Patrol sent up a helicopter. Boats were put out by the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks and by the fire departments of Chase County and Emporia. Three divers arrived from the Marysville Fire Department, while rescuers on foot were aided by dogs from Kansas Search and Rescue, Great Plains Search and Rescue, and Missouri Search and Rescue.
Emporia police officers, sheriff’s deputies from both Chase and Lyon counties, and Salvation Army volunteers also gave assistance.
“Probably the hallmark of the search at this point is the tremendous cooperation between all the agencies at the scene,” Taylor, the fire chief, said Monday.

From there, Lane said, Al Larsen headed back to the Rogers’ minivan.
“They were the last of the people,” Lane said of the Rogers family, still in their minivan. “Time just ran out.”
Robert Rogers was the last person to talk to Al Larsen, according to Marc McCune, Kansas Highway Patrol master trooper, who was the first law-enforcement officer on the scene and worked with a bullhorn to direct drivers away from the flooded area.
Al Larsen already had urged the Rogers family to leave their van, but with the concrete barriers holding the van on the roadway, the family decided to wait out the storm, McCune said. Al Larsen went to the van a second time, this time knocking on the passenger-side window and talking to Robert Rogers. The two contemplated tying the children, all younger than 9, together to get them through the water that, by then, was running across the road. Bungee cords, however, were the only usable items in the van, and were too short to work, McCune said.

“Just very shortly after that,” McCune said Robert Rogers told him, “he heard his wife scream, ‘Al,’ and when he looked up he saw the water take (Al Larsen) down.”
Immediately after that, McCune said, the wall of water washed the van off the road. Robert Rogers broke out the side window and was sucked from the van along with his wife and oldest daughter. The remaining three children were found dead, still strapped in their car seats in the crumpled van.
V V V
A tough search
When Emporia firefighters headed back to Chase County this morning to search for two people missing after a flash flood Saturday night across the Kansas Turnpike, it was the fourth straight day they’d been part of the rescue team.
“There’s about 50 people total,” said Jerry Schrock, a captain with the Emporia Fire Department and head of the water rescue team that first was activated about 9:20 p.m. Saturday.
“Our fire department is trying to take 10 people out there today,” Schrock said.
The firefighters and two boats joined about a dozen dogs and three divers who were searching the area around the Jacob Creek reservoir in eastern Chase County for Melissa Rogers of Liberty, Mo., and Al Larsen of Fort Worth, Texas. Rogers was found at about 7:30 a.m. this morning. Larsen was found about 9:30 a.m., Fire Chief Jack Taylor said this morning at a news conference.
Both Rogers and Larsen were in two of at least seven vehicles that were swept off the turnpike after a wall of water estimated at 7 feet high surged out of Jacob Creek on the Chase-Lyon county line.
Rogers’ four children died in the flood. Her husband, Robert, was swept out of the family’s minivan

The incident was difficult on all troopers and rescue workers, Mark Conboy, Kansas Highway Patrol captain, said this morning.
“This is not something new,” he said, “particularly anything that involves children.”
The KHP has a team to deal with what Conboy called “critical incident stress debriefing.” That team would be activated for rescue workers and others involved.
V V V
KTA findings
The flash flooding on the Kansas Turnpike that swept six people to their deaths south of Emporia last month was caused by too much rain in the Jacob Creek drainage area, not an undersized culvert, according to an engineering study.
The rain was so heavy that not even a larger culvert would have been enough to contain the flow, according to Michael Johnson, president of the Kansas Turnpike Authority .
Johnston outlined preliminary findings of the study Thursday at a meeting of the turnpike authority and a three-member investigative panel convened by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius after the Aug. 30 flood. Johnston, Kansas Highway Patrol Superintendent William Seck and Secretary of Transportation Deb Miller make up the panel.
Seck, who heads the team, said a final report, conducted by HNTB Corp., the turnpike’s consulting engineer, should be ready in two or three weeks.
Johnson said a foot of rain fell over three days in the area hit by the flash flood, including seven inches in just three hours. It created a torrent of water 4 1/2 feet deep that swept across turnpike.
“What caused the extreme flooding even on Aug. 30?” Johnston asked. “In a word, too much rain.”
The box culvert that carries Jacob Creek under the highway is 7 feet tall and 7 feet wide

Using maps unavailable when the highway was designed in 1955, the engineers concluded that the Jacob Creek basin covers 1,220 acres, not the 690 acres used in the original design work. Instead of a 7-by-7 culvert, one 12-by-8 feet likely would have been designed to accommodate a drainage area of that size, Johnston said.
But he said that even with a culvert that big, the study showed that the water still would have been more than four feet deep going across the highway in last month’s flood.
“We would have had to have three 10-by-8 foot box culverts installed at that location to keep water from overtopping the roadway,” Johnston said. “Clearly, a design standard that we didn’t use at the time and that no one uses today.”
The event had been described previously as a 390-year flood, but Johnston said engineers have revised calculations and now estimate it to have been a 500-year flood.
Previous flood
Kenny Schuler of Emporia doesn’t remember concrete barriers being on the turnpike in 1978 when he and two friends decided to take a road trip to Texas over the Fourth of July holiday. As their car neared Jacob Creek, they saw water over the road.
“The moon was out,” Schuler told The Gazette a few weeks ago. “It was so bright. That’s how we saw the water, the only reason we saw it. ... I remember it running across (the road). It looked at least 50 yards wide.”
After another driver drove his pickup truck through and called back on his citizens band radio that the other car could make it, Schuler and his friends drove their hatchback through the water.

“My buddy in the passenger seat opened his door,” Schuler said. “The water was to the bottom of the car. It was 6 to 8 inches high.”
Schuler notified the Kansas Turnpike Authority about his experience after the fatal flood on Aug. 30. The KTA had no record of the incident.
“We didn’t report it,” Schuler said. “We didn’t have cell phones then or somebody would have called that in.”
At Thursday’s meeting, Johnston said that, since the flood, the turnpike authority has made hand-held weather monitoring devices, which are global-positioning based, available to some staff members.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius also praised everyone who lent their aid.
“Kansans share the spirit of perseverance,” she said in a printed statement. “That spirit comes out in the face of a tragedy like this. I have been informed that this may be the first time in history flash flooding of this magnitude has ever occurred on the Kansas turnpike. Let’s hope it is also the last.”
The turnpike was closed for more than two hours between Emporia and Cassoday. One lane of northbound traffic reopened at 11:13 p.m. Saturday, joined by a lane of southbound traffic at 11:17 p.m.
V V V
A husband, a hero
Elizabeth-Anne Larsen knows that her husband died saving others from a flash flood that ripped across the Kansas Turnpike on Saturday night.
Al Larsen was swept away when a wall of water from Jacob Creek rushed over the Turnpike at the Chase-Lyon county line. The water also swept a minivan driven by Melissa Rogers of Liberty, Mo., off the road. She died, along with her four children.
Robert Rogers, Melissa’s husband and the lone survivor from the family’s van, told investigators that Al Larsen tried to convince the family to evacuate the van.
“We talked on the way over here,” said Elvie Trevino, Elizabeth-Anne Larsen’s mother, “knowing (Al), he would help everybody else instead of getting himself to safety.”
According to witnesses, that’s just what Albert Aubrey Larsen, whom everyone called “Al,” did.
Ryan Lane of Lawrence told the Lawrence Journal-World about being stalled out in the flooding, alerting other drivers to the danger and helping some to safety.

There was, Lane said, “another guy carrying an elderly woman in his arms.”
After seeing a photograph of Al Larsen provided by the CBS television affiliate in Fort Worth, Lane said Larsen was the man he saw carrying the woman.
“We rode to Emporia in the same tow truck,” Lane told The Gazette on Wednesday night. “Her name was Foster and she was from Topeka.”
In today’s edition of the Topeka Capital-Journal, 79-year-old Helen Foster told her story.
“I was in a lake of water and the car was filling up rapidly,” Foster told the newspaper. “It was up to my chest, and a man came over to the car. He was standing in deep water and knocked on the window and said, ‘Open your window quick. I’ve got to get you out. You’re going to lose your car and yourself.’”
Once outside her car, Foster said, the weather was ferocious.
“I mean, he almost dropped me a couple of times because of what he was fighting — the wind and the water,” she said. “He carried me to high ground and I said, ‘What’s your name? I want to thank you. I want to thank you. What’s your name?’
“He said, ‘I got you out of the car and that’s all that matters.’”

Add Text Here...

21 Years Later

August 25th,2024

Kansas Turnpike Mile Marker 116

21 years later. Albert Aubrey “Al” Larsen

Memorial to Jacobs Creek Flash Flood

On the evening of August 30, 2003 a heavy rain event caused storm water to swell out of the banks of the usually dry Jacobs Creek. Located just south of Emporia, the small stream was now flooding the Kansas Turnpike. Two of the stranded motorist, Al Larsen and Ryan Lane are credited with saving the lives of seven other travellers that night; getting them out of their cars to higher ground. A wall of water caused by a heavy down burst, washed the stranded vehicles down stream, taking six lives with it. The memorial was to celebrate the survivors and remember the valiant efforts of Al and Ryan

Oklahoma City Bombing