Tragic teen love story: Wesley Quinlan and Wiyanna Nelson die in the Colorado flood

Over 12,000 Colorado residents have been forced to leave their homes due to a ravaging flood, and some have even lost their lives. Hundreds of people are currently unaccounted for, and a handful have been pronounced dead, including a pair of 19-year-old lovers who were swept away in front of their friends.

Wesley Quinlan was driving his girlfriend Wiyanna Nelson and two friends Wednesday night when the torrential rains hit and water rushed down the road they were on until they could no longer drive. The teens got out of the car, and soon found out how powerful the rushing water was when Wiyanna got swept away.

Their friend Emily was in the car and recalls watching Wes react to his girlfriend being carried away by the water. “I looked at Wesley, and he looked at me, and he jumped after her,” she tearfully told The Today Show. “And they were my best friends, and I feel like I watched them die.” Wes was able to grab hold of Wiyanna once but she started to be swept away again, and that’s when he dove in. Both of their bodies were later found.

Emily and Nathan, who was also in the car that night, organized a candlelight vigil for their friends, and Emily tattooed two WWs on her ankle in memory of her lost friends. Nathan was swept away by the water too, but was rescued by a fireman after he was able to grab hold of a branch. The same fireman found Emily in the car where she’d been trapped for three hours.