Friends, neighbors mourn children, woman swept away in flood.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Russ Pulley

Robert and Melissa Rogers had a love big enough to embrace a special-needs infant from China, even while raising three other children, including a boy with Down syndrome.

They were seen as inspirations by many whose lives they touched in schools, at church, and in the Liberty area neighborhood where they were considered a touchstone.

As two days of incessant rain began to clear Monday, those who knew the family were coming to grips with the raw pain of learning that the four Rogers children were gone forever. They died Saturday in a fury of floodwater that also swept away their mother along Interstate 35 south of Emporia, Kan.

Robert Rogers, 37, who police said fought in vain to free his family as their minivan was washed off the highway, was the lone survivor. The Kansas Highway Patrol said he had smashed the driver's side window trying to rescue his family as the van filled with water, but was sucked out as a torrent filled normally dry Jacob's Creek and surged downstream with the minivan and half a dozen other vehicles.

Melissa Rogers was still missing Monday, and was presumed dead. Authorities recovered the bodies of the four Rogers children, Makenah, 8; Zachary, 5; Nicholas, 3; and Alenah, 1, who was recently adopted.

Robert Rogers, though, held out hope for his wife's safe return.