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Second Drowning In Two Days at Sequoia National Park Claims 14-Year-Old

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on July 20, 2009 - 7:11pm

For the second time in just two days the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River in Sequoia National Park has claimed a young girl's life. NPS photo.

For the second time in two days, in the same stretch of river, a young girl has drowned at Sequoia National Park. This time the victim was a 14-year-old from Exeter, California. She had been swimming in the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River near Hospital Rock on Sunday evening when she vanished beneath the water.

According to park officials, rangers were notified at 8 p.m. of the missing girl. While rangers searched into the night, using large spotlights to illuminate the river, the girl's body wasn't spotted until just after noon Monday in a pool about 500 yards downstream from where she was last seen.

The drowning came just a day after a 13-year-old Tulare, California, girl drowned in the same area when currents swept her through a rapid and trapped her beneath a large boulder.

Comments

Submitted by Barky on July 20, 2009 - 8:29pm.

Gads, that's terrible

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Submitted by MRC (not verified) on July 21, 2009 - 12:29am.

In April you wrote about a program at Sequoia National Park, to patrol those river stretches at that times that has been recognised as prone to danger. There you did not mention which river it was, but Middle Fork of the Kaweah River is my guess.

Can you find out if the river patrol was continued this season?

Submitted by chrissy (not verified) on August 1, 2009 - 5:55pm.

I hate to hear about, this kind of tragady. If that spot of the streem is that dangerus, why in the name of god, whould park afficals, not warn familys. The second girl, ashley, is the niece of my bestfriend, their whole family is hurting,disbalief,torn up. What? Did the park do for her and the other girls family??????