Two missing after boat capsizes in Delaware river
Posted by LCraven April 04, 2008 11:57AM
Two fishermen from New Jersey who have been missing since late Thursday afternoon when their boat capsized in the Delaware River are feared to have died in the cold water, authorities said this morning.
"Given the air and water temperatures, the chances of survival at this point are slim," said Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area spokeswoman Deb Nordeen. "We continue to hope we'll have a successful rescue.
"
A third fisherman was able to make it shore and flag down a passing motorist. He was taken by ambulance to Newton Memorial Hospital. His condition was not available.
The men's identities were not being released, but they are friends from the Morristown area, Nordeen said. The survivor is 58 years old; the missing men are 56 and 62 years old, she said.
The incident occurred shortly before 5 p.m. after the group launched from the Dingman's Ferry, Pa., area, near the Dingman's Ferry Toll Bridge in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. They were a about a mile or two downstream, still in view of the bridge, when their anchor hooked on something in the water.
"As they tried to release the anchor, the boat capsized," Nordeen said.
There were personal flotation devices on the boat, but none of the men was wearing one, Nordeen said.
After the boat capsized, the men tried to maneuver it closer to the New Jersey shoreline. The 58 year old made it out of the water and flagged down a motorist on Old Mine Road near the Van Campen Inn in Walpack.
By this time, one the of the fishermen had managed to climb atop the hull of the capsized boat, but the other one was either under the boat or submerged, Nordeen said.
The fisherman and motorist extended a branch to the man atop the hull, and he grabbed hold of the lifeline, but it snapped and he fell into the river.
"The individual was able to grab on, but the branch broke," Nordeen said. "The second person was perhaps under the boat. At some point, they disappeared from view" and remain missing. ΒΆ
The boat was later found four miles downstream from the Dingman's Ferry bridge.
The river search by boat was halted around 8 last night, and resumed at 8 this morning. Searchers had walked the shorelines until midnight.
With a water temperature of 40 degrees and air temperature of 37 degrees, the cause of concern is hypothermia, Nordeen said.
The river also is flowing higher and faster than normal. The river is 10 feet high, and expected to rise another foot today, and flowing at 20,000 cubic feet per second. Both are about double the normal conditions for this time.
