( 4UMF NEWS ) Boy Drowns In Yosemite River:
A 10-year-old Los Angeles-area boy has drowned in a Yosemite National Park river and his 6-year-old brother is missing, according to news reports.
The boys waded into the Merced River at the Vernal Falls footbridge with about 15 relatives during a hike Wednesday afternoon on the Mist Trail, the National Park Service says. The river, about 50 feet wide, is less than a foot deep near the banks this time of year, “but once you get out further we have a swift current and it gets deeper. They both got swept away by the current,” park spokesman Scott Gediman told The Fresno Bee.
The 10-year-old’s body was found about 500 feet downstream. Resuscitation efforts by a park visitor and rangers were unsuccessful. The search is continuing for the 6-year-old. Gediman told the San Francisco Chronicle the boys are either half brothers or stepbrothers.
Park officials would not release their names.
Two weeks ago, a 57-year-old man drowned in the river after becoming pinned under a rock. In June, another drowning occurred on the South Fork of the Merced.
The Merced flows over Vernal Falls. In July 2011, three young adults were swept over the 317-foot-tall cataract after climbing a barrier and entering the river above the brink.
The deaths are a reminder of the danger of the park’s scenic rivers.
