Yahir Vizueth, 25, and Jorge Perez, 31, were part of a group in Houston, including three brothers, that had been rescuing families stuck in rising floodwaters on Monday.
On their third rescue effort, their boat ended up drifting into live power lines, killing two and sending five others vanishing downstream.
As of yesterday, two men, Yahir’s brother Benjamin Vizueth and family friend Gustavo Rodriguez-Hernandez, 40, were still missing after being swept away in the water.
Their boat ended up drifting into live power lines, electrocuting two of them and leaving three others injured (Picture: Facebook) Three others, Yahir’s other brother Jose Vizueth, 30, news photographer Ruaridh Connellan, 26, and reporter Alan Butterfield, remain in hospital after being found clinging to a tree with burns.
The journalists, from DailyMail.com, had joined the five men as they were just about to start their third rescue mission.
Stephany Jacquez, 25, who is a relative of some of the victims, told the Washington Post: ‘Everybody told them to stay, that they had already done their part.
Two journalists had joined the brothers on their third rescue mission (Picture: Facebook) 
It happened just after 3pm on Monday (Picture: Facebook) ‘But they said, “No, we have to go back, there’s a lot of people in danger.”‘
The men then lost control of their boat in the strong current, sending them into the live wires.
She added: ‘They all jumped in the water and got electrocuted, and the current took them.’
Speaking from his hospital bed where he is recovering, Mr Connellan told MailOnline: ‘We were hanging on for dear life.
‘We were trying to get to people who were stranded but the boat lost control and went into the power lines. It was horrible.’
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help out the victims’ families (Picture: Facebook) The accident happened about 10 minutes after the motorboat left on its mission at 3pm Monday.
The journalists and Mr Vizueth were rescued at about noon on Tuesday by members of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
By then, the three men had suffered frostbite to their hands and toes, and required antibiotics after spending so long in the filthy water, Mr Connellan said.
A GoFundMe account has since been set up to help out the victims’ families and has already raised more than $30,000.
At least 35 people have died from the storm.
My name is Yessica Rivera I'm from Eagle Lake, Tx and im opening a gofundme to help a friend Perla Jaquez and her family out I've been knowing Perla and her family for almost 3years now and it's devastated to see her go thru this. No family should pass thru what they're passing thru.
Ben, (perlas husband), Jose, Yahir, Gustavo and George volunteered to help people get out from their home that were flooded.
On August 28, 2017 five men volunteered to rescue Hurricane Harvey flood victims, only one men Jose Vizuelt,30, was found along with a reporter and a photographer from a British media they were all taken to the hospital Memorial Herman Heights and are in critical conditions.
2 more have passed away Yahir,25, and George,31, they are devasted with the news and will need help, they have lost thier husbands, brother-in-law, and friends. They have also lost their homes due to the floods and all families will need all the help we can provide.
They are still in search for Gustavo,40, and Ben,31, whom they have not been able to find. We pray they find them soon.
Please help donate anything to these families who are going thru a hard time and we all know funeral and hospital expensives are high. I'm asking to raise $20,000 to help out 5 families in need. Perla Jaquez wife of one of the missing mens(Ben Vizueth) will be getting the money and she will separate $4,000 for each of the guys that helped out and have lost their lifes. The money will help out pay hospital bills and also pay half of the funeral expenses. They were and will always be heros and Houston will always be grateful for them.
We also ask for your prayers for the two whom still haven't been found. We pray they find them alive and safe.
Thank you.
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For 18 Hours, 3 Men in Houston Fought for Survival in Hurricane Harvey
By MATTHEW HAAG
AUG. 31, 2017
Some of the men who jumped out of a boat in the Greens Bayou in Houston on Monday appeared in a Facebook Live video shortly before the accident. Credit Ben Jimmy Vizueth, via Facebook
Clinging to a tree branch in torrential rain and howling winds, Ruaridh Connellan fought against the ferocious current of Houston’s Greens Bayou. His body was weak and under water. Are we going to die, he said over and over again to a colleague hugging the trunk of the tree.
For 18 hours starting on Monday afternoon, the two journalists for The Daily Mail and another man gripped the only thing keeping them from being sucked into the raging river. Helicopters circled above and rescue crews were off in the distance, but their screams were not heard.
Just before noon Tuesday, three members of the Texas Department of Public Safety in a powerboat spotted the men and pulled them to safety, making them among the lucky few who came face to face with Hurricane Harvey’s wrath and survived. But four other men with them had been swept away and were missing, and their relatives frantically started an effort online to find them.
Two of their bodies were later found, and the two other men remain missing. But during a week in which Harvey delivered one devastating blow after another, the harrowing story of survival is among those that have captured people’s attention through news reports and social media. It is among the instances in which people trying to rescue others ended up needing rescuing — and in which those chronicling the devastation couldn’t help but be swept up in it.
“We were taking turns in yelling for help in the darkness,” Alan Butterfield, a reporter for The Daily Mail, told the British publication about the episode. “I promised him we were not going to die, we were going to make it.”
Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Connellan, a photographer, were in stable condition on Thursday at Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital in Houston, according to The Daily Mail. Mr. Connellan’s hands were cut as he held onto the tree and his face battered, and Mr. Butterfield broke a toe and cut his knee.
Mr. Connellan did not return requests for comment on Thursday, and Mr. Butterfield, reached by phone at the hospital on Thursday afternoon, referred questions to a Daily Mail spokesman, who did not return a request for comment. The Texas Department of Public Safety did not return a request for comment.
The other man rescued, identified by relatives as Jose Vizueth, 30, was also at a hospital. The two men who died were identified by the authorities as Jorge Raul Perez and Yahir Rubio-Vizuet.
On Thursday, family members and volunteers searched brush along the Green Bayou east of downtown Houston for the missing men, Benjamin Vizueth, 31, and Gustavo Rodriguez-Hernandez, 40. Photo
Alan Butterfield, a reporter with The Daily Mail, left, and Ruaridh Connellan, a photographer traveling with him, right. Credit Ben Jimmy Vizueth, via Facebook
“We need to find these boys,” Perla Jaquez, the wife of Benjamin Vizueth, said in a video on Facebook during the search. “It’s been three days already and nothing yet. We pray they are in a hospital.”
The paths of the seven men intersected Monday afternoon. The two journalists landed in Texas to cover Harvey’s landfall, staking out a part of the Texas Gulf Coast south of Houston bracing for the destructive winds and pummeling rains.
They reported on Saturday about a family in Rockport who refused to evacuate their home and lost almost everything, narrowly surviving as water filled their home. Then they traveled inland to Victoria, writing about how they had rescued a dog tied to a pole in rising floodwater.
By Monday afternoon, the two journalists had made their way into Houston and spotted another possible story off Highway 90 in the eastern part of the city. Water covered streets and nearly topped bridges, submerging homes and neighborhoods in feet of floodwater.
The Greens Bayou, which flows under the highway during normal conditions, had swollen into a roaring river, and five men were about to use a small motorboat to try to rescue a relative in a wheelchair stuck in her home. The men invited Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Connellan to tag along and document it.
But something went awry a few minutes into the journey. Battling fierce currents, the boat lost control and veered off course — defenseless as the raging river pushed it toward fallen power lines dangling in the water. Only about 20 feet from the lines, the seven men all jumped into the water.
Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Connellan plunged into the bayou, their bodies tingling from the electrical current. When Mr. Butterfield surfaced, he told The Daily Mail, he heard his colleague about 50 feet away screaming his name. The boat had struck the lines and was smoking.
As the current pulled the journalists and Mr. Vizueth downstream, Mr. Butterfield said, he yelled for them to try to grab a tree. The men latched onto one, and Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Vizueth took off their shoes so they could grip the tree and climb it, according to The Daily Mail.
But Mr. Connellan was out of energy and could not pull himself up out of the water. He held onto a branch in the water, repeatedly asking his colleague if they would make it out alive, the publication said.
“I didn’t tell the others, but I thought we might be there until at least Thursday until the water receded,” Mr. Butterfield told The Daily Mail. “I could see from the water mark on the trees that it had hardly gone down in the 18 hours we were there.”