EDEN, N.C. (AP) - Searchers combed a North Carolina river Friday for two missing tubers after a group on a recreational float went over a dam, resulting in three deaths and four people rescued from the water.
The group of nine people was floating down the Dan River on inflatable tubes and went over a dam that's about 8 feet high next to a Duke Energy plant on Wednesday night, Rockingham County Emergency Services Director Rodney Cates told reporters. A Duke Energy employee who saw some of the tubers called the situation in to 911 Thursday afternoon, Cates said.
Cates said an air and water search for the remaining two missing tubers went until dark Thursday and resumed Friday morning around 7 a.m. Rescue personnel were seen hauling rafts toward the water Friday at a staging area in Eden, north of Greensboro near the Virginia state line.
Cates did not release the identities of the people involved. Four were rescued and taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries Cates said were not life-threatening after spending nearly 24 hours in the water.
Cates said it's not immediately clear why the tubers didn't contact authorities sooner, but he said it may have been because they didn't have phones with them. First responders indicated the survivors were caught in fast-moving water near the dam when they were found, according to recordings of scanner traffic on broadcastify.com.
Cates told reporters Friday that debris and rocks in the river can puncture tubes or rafts, so it's important for people to wear life preservers. He said it wasn't clear if any of the nine were using life preservers.
"The current of the river makes it very hard to navigate, even for the most experienced swimmers. So we strongly encourage people to wear some type of personal floatation device in addition to the tube they're in," he said.
He said search efforts will continue throughout the day.