text: Eight-year-old Chloe-May Kabealo, who swam to safety while her mother, sister and brother drowned when their car plunged into a northern NSW river, has said goodbye to her family at their funeral service this afternoon. 
   
   Hundreds of people farewelled the "heroic" mother Stephanie King, 43, and two of her children: Ella Jane, 11, and seven-year-old Jacob, at Tweed Heads Elevation Church this afternoon. 
   
   Chloe miraculously escaped the submerged car after it slid off a muddy Tumbulgum road into the Tweed River last Monday, when the region was hit by heavy rains that followed Cyclone Debbie. 
   
   A mother and her two children who drowned after their car plunged into a northern NSW river have been farewelled at a funeral at Tweed Heads. Picture: 7 News 
   
   Stephanie King, with Ella Jane (top right), Chloe, and Jacob. Picture: Supplied 
   
   Local Tumbulgum pastor Rob Stuttle who conducted the service, earlier said the close-knit community were rallying together as the clean-up of the devastated area continued. 
   
   He said Chloe and her father Matt Kabealo are "coping as best as they can". 
   
   Pastor Rob Stuttle said Chloe and her father Matt Kabealo are "coping as best as they can". Picture: 7 News 
   
   Police last week hailed Ms King a hero. 
   
   "The mother was trying to get one of her children out of the car when she passed away ... she was with the child, holding the child," Superintendent Wayne Starling told reporters last week. 
   
   “I have no doubt she would still be alive if she wasn’t trying to save her children.” 
   
   Police believe Ms King lost consciousness trying to free two of her three children from the crash. 
   
   Supt Starling said Chloe's miraculous escape was possibly a result of her mother’s desperate efforts. 
   
   Stephanie King, 43, from Bilambil, died in the accident with two of her children. Photo: Supplied 
   
   Former police officer Matt Grinham and his family pulled up moments after the accident at Dulguigan Road and tried to help. 
   
   Mr Grinham dove in to try to find the car, but could not. 
   
   "Just the helplessness of not being able to find the car. The bubbles were there but we just couldn't get to the car." 
   
   His son Thomas Grinham said the little girl who swam free was "really upset". 
   
   "She couldn't say much she just said my mum and little sister and my brother have gone in the river in a car." 
   
   A photo from the scene. Picture: Peter Fegan 7 News. 
   
   Emergency services were called after Chloe escaped from the river and ran to a nearby property to raise the alarm. 
   
   A NSW Ambulance spokesperson told 7 News Online the survivor was taken to Tweed Heads District Hospital. 
   
   Chloe was treated for multiple lacerations to her legs, abrasions and neck pain. ||||| Video 
   
   Image Chloe-May talks about terrifying ordeal 0:31 THE young girl who was the sole survivor of a horror crash at Tumbulgum three weeks ago has broken her silence. Courtesy: 9 News 
   
   AN eight-year-old girl who was the sole survivor of a horror crash that killed her mother and two siblings in northern New South Wales has spoken of how she escaped the sinking car. 
   
   Only three weeks ago, Chloe-May Kabealo’s world changed when she managed to get out of the van her mother, Stephanie King, was driving. 
   
   The vehicle has plunged into the swollen Tweed River at Tumbulgum, which had flooded following a lashing from Cyclone Debbie. 
   
   Speaking at a fundraiser for the remaining members of the family — Chloe-May and her dad Matt Kabealo — the eight-year-old told of her miraculous escape. 
   
   “I unbuckled my seatbelt and I tried to go up for air, and then I just kept floating up out of something and then I got out,” she said. 
   
   The girl managed to climb out of the river’s bank and run to a nearby farmhouse where she was assisted by locals. 
   
   “They just took me in and let me get into clean clothes and cleaned up all my cuts on my feet,” she said. 
   
   Chloe-May said the family had been supported over the past three weeks. 
   
   “We’ve been having heaps of people saying we’re there for you and all that,” she said. 
   
   Her father was not holding up so well. 
   
   “I’m shattered buddy, I’m not holding up,” he told a news reporter at the Tweed Heads fundraiser. 
   
   “(I’m) just being strong for my daughter. We’re just going to get through it the best we can.” 
   
   Tweed Byron police co-ordinated the fundraiser which raised more than $10,000 for the grieving family. 
   
   “Nothing that we do could ever replace Chloe’s two siblings, younger brother and sister, but anything we can do to make their life a little bit better we can,” Senior Constable Brad Foster said. 
   
   Chloe-May said of her mum and siblings: “They were all loved and they’ll never be forgotten.” ||||| Image copyright facebook Image caption Chloe (bottom left) survived when the car sank, but her mother, brother and sister did not 
   
   A girl of eight who survived when the car she was in sank in Australia, killing three family members, has described her desperate struggle to raise the alarm. 
   
   Chloe Kabealo said she had unbuckled her seatbelt and tried to "go up for air", then "just kept floating up out". 
   
   She said of her lost family members: "They were all loved and they'll never be forgotten." 
   
   Her father, who was not in the car, said he was "shattered" by the loss. 
   
   "I'm not holding up," Matt Kabealo said. "I'm just being strong for my daughter." 
   
   Chloe and her mother, sister and brother were in a car in the small town of Tumbulgum in New South Wales when it slid off a muddy road into a flooded river earlier this month. 
   
   Chloe escaped and ran to a farmhouse to raise the alarm. 
   
   Stephanie King, 43, died trying to save her children. 
   
   Local police superintendent Wayne Starling told reporters from 7 News at the time: "The mother was trying to get one of her children out of the car when she passed away. 
   
   "She was with the child, holding the child. I have no doubt she would still be alive if she wasn't trying to save her children." 
   
   Ella Jane, 11, and seven-year-old Jacob also died. 
   
   Chloe and Mr Kabealo were speaking at an event raising funds for them. So far efforts have gathered tens of thousands of Australian dollars. 
   
   "Anything we can do to make their lives a little bit better, we'll try anything we can," local policeman Constable Brad Foster told 7 News. 
   
   In March last year, a four-month old baby was the sole survivor when a car sank off the coast of Donegal in the Republic Ireland. 
   
   Advice for escaping a sinking car 
   
   If a car you are in starts to sink, get out as fast as possible. Do not phone for help or try to retrieve possessions. There is very little time. 
   
   Open the windows straightaway before contact with water makes the electric system fail or water pressure stops you winding the windows down. 
   
   If that doesn't work, get the door open, undo your seatbelt and get out. 
   
   The third option, in last resort, is to pull a headrest out and use the metal part of it to hit the window, hard, in the corner and hopefully break it open. 
   
   If you are underwater when you leave the car, push away from it, and if you don't know for sure which way is up, check what direction bubbles are floating in and swim that way. 
   
   sources: Popular Mechanics, The Art of Manliness and Top Gear
target: – Chloe Kabealo unbuckled her seatbelt after the car her mother was driving slid off a muddy Australia road into a flooded river and tried to "go up for air," then "just kept floating up out." That's how the 8-year-old survived the crash as the car sank, a harrowing experience she relived at a fundraising event this week, the BBC reports—but her mother, 11-year-old sister, and 7-year-old brother all drowned. "I'm not holding up," Chloe's dad, Matt, who was not in the car, said at the event. "I'm just being strong for my daughter." Chloe ran to a nearby farmhouse to get help, but rescuers couldn't save Stephanie King, 43, who was found to have died while trying in vain to save her other two children. "The mother was trying to get one of her children out of the car when she passed away," the local police superintendent told 7 News after the crash three weeks ago. "She was with the child, holding the child. I have no doubt she would still be alive if she wasn't trying to save her children." The fundraising event raised more than $10,000 for the family, news.com.au reports.