rss
mobile
Feeds
The boy was swimming about 35 feet from the shore near the Hunting Island Lighthouse when he disappeared at about 2 p.m., Lee Levesque said. Crews searched for him until about 9 p.m.
The search will resume at about 5 a.m. today.
"Nothing will deter us from the operation," Levesque said.
Authorities would not identify the boy, but Levesque said he and his family are from Beaufort County.
The boys' friends aren't sure when they last saw him, Levesque said, but when they noticed he was missing, they told his family members who also were at the beach. They notified park rangers, and several agencies joined in the search.
The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter and a 25-foot response boat from Tybee Island, Ga., and two S.C. Department of Natural Resources marine units searched for the by boat, as well, Coast Guard Operation Specialist 1st Class Chris McDonald said.
"We are trying to hit the search as hard as we can before the sun goes down," McDonald said at about 5 p.m.
Park rangers, Lady's Island-St. Helena Fire District crews, Beaufort County Sheriff's deputies and volunteers searched the beach and the shoreline, and crews with the Fripp Island Fire Department also searched from jet skis, McDonald said.
"There were a large number of volunteers who searched, arm to arm, from groin to groin, as far out as safely possible," Levesque said. "We're deeply grateful for their help."
Conditions along the shore Monday included two- to three-foot waves and 18-knot winds and were expected to worsen with thunderstorms moving into the area, Coast Guard officials said late Monday.
Meanwhile, the search for a man who never resurfaced from the water early Sunday in St. Helena Sound will continue this morning, said DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas.
William Alan Carson, 49, of St. Helena Island, was on a friend's sailboat when he jumped into the sound for a swim at the mouth of the Ashepoo River at about 1:30 a.m., Thomas said.
Carson, who was swimming in water about eight feet deep, surfaced twice and then never reappeared, his friends told authorities.
Passengers aboard the 40-foot sailboat began a search and called the U.S. Coast Guard to report that they had lost sight of Carson, who was swimming alone, Coast Guard officials said.
When DNR officers arrived at 2:45 a.m., a Coast Guard helicopter and patrol boat had already started a search of the area.
The boat was anchored near Otter Island, where the Ashepoo River meets the south Edisto River. The small, uninhabited island was searched thoroughly by air, and the search continued into Sunday night. Officials searched by boat and air Monday and DNR dive teams were in the water for about seven hours, Thomas said.
As reports of the missing 9-year-old came in Monday afternoon, DNR pilots began flying back and forth between each location, he said.
"Tuesday, we'll have patrol vessels in the water with sonar and DNR aircraft flying all day," Thomas said.
Today marks the opening of state shrimp-trawling season and there are numerous commercial shrimpers expected to be on the water, he said. DNR marine units will work in cooperation with local fisherman and continue to conduct the Ashepoo River search from a boat ramp at Bennett's Point near Otter Island in Colleton County.
