Photo of the Upper Delaware River at Hawk's Nest, near the spot where a rafter drowned on Saturday. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Three people drowned in local waterways over the Memorial Day weekend.
On Monday, two fishermen lost their footing in the Esopus Creek in Marbletown and were swept away: 47-year-old Kenneth Garland and 39-year-old Jeffrey Galloway, both of Lake Katrine. The Daily Freeman reports today that the bodies of both men have been recovered.
All that rain last week shifted the river bottom, according to the story:
Police said Garland, Galloway, and 38-year-old Christopher Quinn of High Falls were fishing in waist-deep water in the Esopus on Monday when Garland lost his footing between 3:30 and 3:45 p.m. and was pulled into the current.
Police said the bottom of the creek had shifted amid last week’s heavy rains, leaving a significant drop-off when Garland tried to step forward.
Quinn attempted to rescue Garland, police said, and the next time he saw Galloway, he, too, had been caught by the current.
On Saturday, a rafter from Long Island, 71-year-old Angelo Zotto, drowned in the Upper Delaware River near Hawk's Nest after he was thrown from his raft. The Times Herald-Record reported that Zotto wasn't wearing a life jacket:
[Park ranger Joe] Hinkes said the man was sitting on the side of the raft when he was thrown overboard. He was a novice swimmer. Hinkes said the man's wife, who was wearing a life jacket, jumped into the fast-moving water and tried to rescue him. She was unsuccessful.
"She saw him go underwater," Hinkes said.
Also on Saturday, two swimmers in High Falls escaped a similar fate:
Two swimmers had to be rescued from Esopus Creek after being swept downstream by swift-moving waters Saturday afternoon, said the High Falls Fire Department.
High Falls and dive teams from the Ulster Hose Fire Co. and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office responded to the creek’s lower falls after two men became trapped in waist-deep waters and were unable to get to shore.
