Jonesboro police recovered the body of a 14-year-old boy swept away by flash flood waters early Monday morning, one of three deaths blamed on rains this weekend, authorities said.
Meanwhile, forecasters with the National Weather Service at North Little Rock say May has been one of the wettest on record and the possibility remains that the state could get even more rain.
Police say they found the body of Charles Porter around 2 a.m. Monday on the south side of Johnson Avenue, near the flooded field the boy had been playing in. Police Sgt. Jon Redman told The Jonesboro Sun that officers received a call around 5:50 p.m. that Porter had become trapped in a pipe.
"The investigation revealed the 14-year-old was playing in a flooded lot with other individuals when he fell into a drainage pipe and was swept away by the current," Redman said.
Porter's stepfather, Michael Micheli, said he, Porter and several others were actually trying to retrieve a truck bed liner that had gone into a nearby ditch behind a business.
"He was next in the ditch and then he was gone," Micheli said.
Micheli said Porter came out to help, and that the boy had been inside cooking dinner for the family while the others were trying to retrieve the bed liner. The boy's stepfather said he told Porter to go back inside, but said Porter did not listen because "he wanted to play with his brothers and his dad."
"He got mad. I told him to check on the food," Micheli said. "He makes the best grilled cheese. I wish I could have him back."
Around the time Parker fell victim to the flood water, a sport-utility vehicle carrying a man and a woman was swept away by flood waters as they tried to cross a low-lying bridge on County Road 785 north of Jonesboro, authorities said. Both died.
Rains continued Monday, as forecasters said this May has been one of the wettest on record. The National Weather Service said records indicated that 12.89 inches of rain have fallen so far at the Little Rock airport, making it the wettest May since 1893.
Forecasters say the wettest May came in 1882, when 15.91 inches of rain fell. Only 0.36 more inches of rain need to fall for May 2009 to become the second wettest on record.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.