SHREVEPORT, La. – Six teenagers who could not swim drowned in a northwest Louisiana river during a family outing, falling into deep water from the shallows where they were wading.
Officials planned to hold a news conference Tuesday to release more details about the deaths of the six, who drowned Monday in the Red River in a popular recreational area where sand bars gave way to 20-foot depths. A seventh teen, a 14-year-old, was rescued.
"They had one lifejacket here. As you can imagine, everybody started yelling for help. Nobody could swim," said Caddo Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick.
Shreveport Assistant Fire Chief Fred Sanders said he believed the victims, ages 13 to 18, included three brothers from one family and a sister and two brothers from another.
"They were out here with some adults. But unfortunately, neither the children nor the adults could swim," he said.
Sanders said names may be released Tuesday, after the department is sure relatives have been notified.
The teens had started playing in a familiar area but ended up at a spot in the river where the bottom fell suddenly and that's where divers found the bodies, Sanders said.
Marilyn Robinson, a friend of the families, told The Times of Shreveport she watched helplessly as the victims went under. She said a large group of family and friends, including roughly 20 children, were out at the sandbar to barbecue and have a good time. They frequent the area and were familiar with the water, Robinson said.
"None of us could swim," she said. "They were yelling 'help me, help me. Somebody please help me.' It was nothing I could do but watch them drown one by one."
Sanders said he did not know whether one teen fell and pulled down others, or if they were trying to rescue each other.
It took more than three hours to find all the bodies, he said.
"It's devastating," Sanders said. "To my knowledge the city has never experienced an incident of this magnitude."
Rescue crews were delayed a bit because the accident was reported as near the Jimmie Davis Bridge but was nearly a mile away, Sanders said.
The families were in a recreational area of the Red River that has sand bars, Sanders said. The park is a popular picnic and fishing area and some people do go wading.

you would think that a teenager would have enough sense to not wade in past your knees if you know you can't swim.

Four men died after horsing around in a boat on a southern Idaho reservoir, authorities said late Monday.

The bodies of four men were found Monday evening in the American Falls Reservoir in the same area where the men had fallen into the water a day earlier, said Cpl. Leilani Morgan of the the Power County Sheriff's Department.

The search began Sunday for the four boaters after authorities received a 911 call from a child on their boat, said Power County, Idaho, Sheriff Jim Jeffries. The four men were "horsing around," he said. One man was standing up in the front of the boat and another man pushed him into the water as a joke, not realizing he could not swim, he said.

"There were enough vests for all four adult men to have them on. However, they did not have them on," Morgan said.

The victims have been identified as 57-year-old Darrel Shappart, 26-year-old Jared Hale, his 30-year-old brother Aaron Hale and 30-year-old Stephan Verbeck, Morgan said. The men were boating on the waterway Sunday along with five children under the age of nine.

The frantic 911 call triggered a search where rescuers used boats with side-scanning sonar to locate the men in the reservoir, which is about 180 miles east-southeast of Boise.

Why are you on a boat if you can't swim?

I don't know that I would be quite so...harsh about the response. What the rescuers did was pretty brave, despite the tragic outcome.

The victims have been identified as 57-year-old Darrel Shappart, 26-year-old Jared Hale, his 30-year-old brother Aaron Hale and 30-year-old Stephan Verbeck, Morgan said. The men were boating on the waterway Sunday along with five children under the age of nine.

Rushing into an emergency situation you are not prepared to handle is not bravery. It's stupidity. All you do is become a victim yourself and raise the burden when competant and properly equipped people do arrive.

While I generally agree that there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, that doesn't necessarily make a brave act that ends badly a mistake. It's plenty stupid to go into battle, no matter your training or equipment. It's irrational as hell to put your life at risk for others, no matter the circumstances. And yet, we hold people who make that choice up as heroes (and rightly so, in my opinion).

Not going to argue with that. Still, even if I couldn't swim, I would be hard pressed not to risk my life to save my kids.