Search efforts for a 6-year-old girl swept away Saturday by a raging storm-swollen creek in Pennsylvania officially became a recovery mission Sunday afternoon, authorities announced.
Lin’ajah Brooker had been playing with two other girls in a park near Chester Creek when two of them slipped on mud and fell in at about 7 p.m. Saturday. One got herself out of the water but Lin’ajah was whipped downstream, her aunt, Tyeesha Reynolds, told WPVI-TV.
Family members on hand leaped into the water. First responders rushed to the scene and launched an exhaustive search but did not finder her after more than three hours. The U.S. Coast Guard took up the search overnight and rescue crews resumed the search at 8 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities said the longest someone could be expected to survive in that water was three hours, and at 2 p.m. Sunday they declared it a recovery mission rather than a rescue.
“We always had in the back of our minds, just based on the initial information, that it was going be a recovery after three hours,” Delaware County Fire Commissioner John Shirley said at a press conference. “But that being said, we didn’t want to give up hope. Because we were looking for that miracle.”
Shirley described a search complicated by hazardous debris, as rescuers set up light towers and flew drones equipped with infrared and thermal imaging technology over the entire area on Saturday night, WPVI reported.
Rescuers used boats and drones on the creek in both directions, as well as on both sides of the Delaware River where the creek meets it. Shirley said the fast-moving current would probably have whisked Lin’ajah to the river in about nine minutes.
“She might have already been in the Delaware when we were just getting on scene,” he said.
“This is an extremely sad day for the City of Chester,” Chester Mayor Stefan Roots said. “This is a community that will wrap its arms around those are hurting or who are in need.”
With News Wire Services
