60-Year-Old Ride-Share Driver Dies in Flash Flood After Calling Husband: 'Lost Her Life for an $18' Fare

Mar. 15, 2025

NBC affiliateKXASidentified the woman who died as Jolene Jarrell, a mother of three.

Jarrell was driving for a ride-sharing service and had just finished taking a passenger to a drop-off location before she encountered floodwaters, the outlet reported.

Mesquite Fire Department Chief Rusty Wilson told KXAS that Jarrell was on the phone with her husband when the car began to fill with water. As it reached her knees, the call was dropped.

“They told me that themselves… were on the phone with her and lost contact with her, so they were in the act of actually looking for her,” Wilson said of the family.

Mesquite police and fire departments did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Tuesday.

While some media outlets reported Jarrell as driving for Uber at the time of the incident, the company told PEOPLE the reports are inaccurate.

Mesquite, located east of Dallas, received almost 12 inches of rain on Monday, per FOX affiliateKDFW.

The nine inches that fell over Dallas Fort Worth Airport over 24 hours on Sunday was the most rain the area has seen over that period of time since 1932, according to theNational Weather Service Forth Worth.

source: people.com