Ariana Fox, 9 months, Cody Fox, 29, and eight children, ages 4-17, killed in 15-car pileup caused by heavy wind and rain on I-65 near Greenville, Alabama

The crash happened at around 2:30 p.m. Saturday June 19, just north of Greenville, according to officials with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

He said the vehicles likely hydroplaned on wet roads, with eight children, ages 4 to 17, killed in a van belonging to a youth ranch operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association for abused or neglected children.

Michael Smith, the youth ranches CEO, said the van was heading back to the ranch near Camp Hill, northeast of Montgomery, after a week at the beach in Gulf Shores. It caught fire after the wreck and Candice Gulley, the ranch director, was the van’s only survivor — pulled from the flames by a bystander.

Top winds remained near 30 mph. National Hurricane Center forecasters predicted Claudette would strengthen back to tropical storm status Monday over eastern North Carolina as it went out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

The deaths occurred as drenching rains pelted northern Alabama and Georgia late Saturday. As much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain was reported earlier from Claudette along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Two people died in another car that collided with the van, Garlock said – 29-year-old Cody Fox and 9-month-old Ariana Fox, both of Marion County, Tennessee.

A bystander was able to remove the bus driver from the vehicle, but couldn’t save any of the passengers due the vehicle being on fire.

The safety investigation “vehicle technologies such as forward collision warning systems, CMV fuel tank integrity, motor carrier operations and occupant survivability,” the post said.

“We lost eight young people that can make a difference in our world, we lost eight young people that didn’t have a chance to have their own children, we lost eight young people that can’t break the cycle of where they’ve been and change it for their children,” Youth Ranches CEO Michael Smith told CNN.

Butler County coroner Wayne Garlock said the fatalities included a 3-year-old, 8-year-old, 12-year-old, 14-year-old, 15-year-old, two 16-year-olds, and a 17-year-old.

The victims of the 17-vehicle accident, which also killed two other people in a separate car, will be remembered in a public service planned for a church in Auburn on Thursday afternoon.