BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Crews that included divers and underwater sonar devices searched Friday for three people who were missing on two Alabama lakes after a pair of holiday boating crashes that left 10 other people injured.
Both crashes happened after dark on July 4 on large reservoirs that are popular destinations for people seeking a break from the summer heat.
Capt. Gary Buchanan, a spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Marine Patrol, said searchers including dive teams were trying to locate two people who were missing after boats collided on Lake Jordan, located north of Montgomery. Five other people were hurt, he said, including two who were hospitalized with serious injuries.
It’s unclear exactly what happened, but officials said two boats collided.
Crews also resumed searching Friday for one person who was missing after another boating crash on Smith Lake north of Birmingham, Buchanan said. Five people were hurt in that incident, he said, and four of them had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.
Photos from the crash scene showed a rescue boat beside a fiberglass boat overturned in the water.
1 missing, 5 hurt after boat crashes on Smith Lake north of Birminghamhttps://t.co/UXGa9d5D7m
— ABC 33/40 News (@abc3340) July 5, 2019
While skies were clear, high temperatures were forecast in the 90s and Buchanan said the intense heat made conditions worse for searchers, who were concentrated on recovering bodies on the nearly 7,000-acre Lake Jordan rather than finding survivors.
“It works against us because of the stress that puts on the divers and their gear and the search teams that are out there in the sun and the heat,” Buchanan said.
Smith Lake covers about 21,000 acres.
Alabama swimmer’s body found in New Orleans-area lake
In a similar incident, Authorities in Louisiana say the body of a swimmer from Alabama has been recovered from a New Orleans-area lake after an Independence Day accident.
The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the body of 20-year-old Lacy Patrick of Mobile was found about 7 a.m. Friday in Lake Pontchartrain, near Northshore Beach in Slidell.
Patrick was swimming there Thursday evening when she was hit by a boat and disappeared below the waves.
A news release says her body was turned over to the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office to determine the official cause of death.
News agencies report that an autopsy is set for Monday.
Slidell is about 26 miles north-northeast of New Orleans and on the other side of the huge tidal basin called Lake Pontchartrain.
