The search for a missing Indiana man believed to have drowned in the Ohio River Wednesday night has been called off due to a line of powerful thunderstorms that could make the recovery operation dangerous for searchers.See Video at Ohio River
Crittenden County Sheriff's Deputy Greg Rushing, who is heading up the search for Daniel David Rust of Lake Station, Ind., said choppy waters and lightning are too much of a risk for the search by crews on at least five boats to continue. Rushing said the recovery effort would be called off after dark anyway, resuming tomorrow morning.
"At this point, it's strictly a recovery operation," Rushing to The Crittenden Press at mid-day Thursday.
The missing man is believed to have drown early this morning after the boat from which he and a friend, Patrick May, were fishing Wednesday night capsized. May, also said to be a Lake Station resident in his mid-40s, was rescued early this morning and remained hospitalized Thursday at Hardin County General Hospital in Rosiclare, Ill.
May told authorities that he and Rust were headed back to the campsite at Dam 50 Recreational Area in Crittenden County when their 12-foot john boat struck something in the water. Disoriented and exhausted from floating almost four miles downstream in 45-degree waters, May could not pinpoint the exact location of the accident, but it is believed to have near the Kentucky shore within site of the recreational area.
Neither man was wearing a life jacket, but May apparently stayed afloat by clinging to a spotlight ejected from the overturned boat. He came ashore at Cave In Rock Island, where he began to yell for help, Rushing said.
A harbor boat run by the operator of the Cave In Rock Ferry was moving barges in the area when the crew began hearing screams for help. Upon investigating, the ferrymen found May on the shore of the island, covered in mud. He was taken to the LaFarge Quarry Dock on the Illinois side of the river where workers wrapped him in blankets and called an ambulance.
Lonnie Lewis, owner of the ferry, was piloting the harbor boat that picked up the survivor.
Crittenden County Rescue volunteers who had been at the scene searching for Rust since shortly after midnight, said May told authorities that he was pretty sure his buddy had drown. Rust was believed to have been swimming toward the far shore on the Illinois side, said Terry Angleton of Hardin County (Ill.) Emergency Management.
Rushing said the men had been camping at the recreation area since early this week. They entered the water in a small aluminum V-hull boat with a 5 hp motor.
A third man who had been at the camp site left the recreation area before Wednesday night's accident. By late morning, family of the victims had removed the men's belongings from the campsite.
Searchers have walked the shoreline and traveled as many as six miles of river looking for signs of the capsized boat or Rust's body. The search has focused down-river from the Dam 50 site, reaching as far as Elizabethtown, Ill. Initially, two boats from Crittenden County Rescue Squad were using visual and depth-finding equipment methods in an attempt to locate the body.
Hardin County rescuers joined the operation around noon Thursday with an underwater camera and their own boat. Kentucky Emergency Management Area II Dive Rescue Team, which assisted on the search for three missing duck hunters on Kentucky Lake this winter, also joined the search with a large boat equipped with two types of high-tech sonar. One of the divers on the team, Richard Curtis, said the sonar can detect the outline of a human body.
Divers, however, will not enter the muddy swirling waters along the Kentucky shore until a body is located by the sonar equipment.
The U.S. Coast Guard joined the recovery effort with a crew of four from Paducah, and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife is also involved.
Deputy Rushing said a body submerged in 45- to 50-degree waters could remain on the bottom for as long as three weeks. He is hoping the recovery operation will end much sooner so that the family can have closure, but cautioned that a river search is difficult, particularly with tow traffic and debris in the water.
The rescue squad has a command post set up in a camper at the Dam 50 site until the recovery is complete. While the team will not be searching after dark, the Red Cross and Marion Baptist Church will be providing meals for searchers.
The first bright spot of the day for searchers came from Rust's family who visited the recovery site around 1 p.m. Information they provided volunteers narrowed the search to between Dam 50 and the mouth of Crooked Creek, cutting the search area by about three-quarters, according to Rushing.
Rushing said the men apparently chose Crittenden County for their fishing expedition because family members had relocated from the Lake Station area to Marion. Lake Station is in northwest Indiana near Chicago.
The last Ohio River drowning in Crittenden County occurred in August 2002 when Randy L. Floyd, 47, died after going overboard from a pleasure boat.
More details on the search for Rust's body will be provided as available.
