News
Search for Missing Kayaker Continues
By: Atish Baidya
Posted on:
Update 7/10/17 @ 12:00 p.m.
ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Search and recovery crews are using side-scan sonar in their search for a missing kayaker from Meigs County.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Charles Carlson says crews are focusing on a 300-yard area just below the Whites Mill waterfall.
Carlson says search efforts will continue despite the rainy weather on Monday.
40-year-old Steve Lippson was one of six people swept over the falls Saturday afternoon.
Four people swept over managed to pull themselves from the river. Carlson says an Athens police officer rescued had to rescue a juvenile from the water.
Lippson was kayaking with a group of friends and family at the time of the incident. Carlson says the Hocking River was still rising when the group put in the water at the West State ball fields. The river crested around 6 p.m. Saturday.
Emergency officials have released the name of the missing kayaker swept over the White’s Mill waterfall on Saturday as search and recovery operations continue.
40-year-old Steve Lippson, from Racine, Ohio was one of six kayakers were swept over the waterfall on the Hocking River around 2 p.m. The other five people were rescued by emergency responders or rescued themselves from the water. Another six kayakers managed to get safely to the river bank and avoided getting swept over the waterfall.
Water levels on the Hocking River have been high due to recent heavy rains in the region.
Emergency crews conducted search and rescue operations Saturday until about 9:15 p.m. before suspending them until water levels on the Hocking River reached safer levels. Crews started recovery operations Sunday morning at 8 a.m.