OMAHA, Neb.—Firefighters and police searched Wednesday for the bodies of two teens and a child who went missing in the frigid waters of Missouri River at Omaha, Nebraska, a fire and rescue officials said.
Several sonar-equipped boats, a police helicopter and drones were being used to search for two 18-year-old women and an 11-year-old girl who went into the water Tuesday evening while fishing from the shore at N.P. Dodge Memorial Park in northeast Omaha, Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Coby Werner said. A fourth girl, who is 13, was able to make it to the shore on her own Tuesday evening and was treated for hypothermia at a hospital.
Officials have not released the names of the victims. Werner said the four are related, but he could not say how. He said he did not know why they entered the water, which hovered around 45 degrees (7.2 degrees Celsius) Wednesday.
“Typically with 45-degree water, you know, maybe in about 10 to 15 minutes, you start to become hypothermic,” Werner said.
Someone visiting the park heard a girl crying near the riverbank around 6 p.m. Tuesday and found the 13-year-old girl, then called 911, he said.
Officials from several Omaha area agencies responded to the park and searched the river until dark about three hours later. The search resumed around 9 a.m. Wednesday.
“As of this morning, we consider this a recovery mode,” Werner said. “That doesn’t mean we’re not doing still everything we can. It just means we start to slow down just a little bit and do more of a methodical search.”
