U.S. Coast Guard and Mississippi County sheriff’s office authorities continued their search Wednesday for two people who fell from a barge Tuesday night after it overturned in the Mississippi River near Hickman Landing.
The two missing people were helping unload the barge, which had been carrying steel coils when it capsized and then sank.
Each steel coil can weigh anywhere from 60,000 to 67,000 pounds, Coast Guard spokesman Brandon McMillan said, and the barge may have been carrying several. They were being offloaded for energy company Kinder Morgan, which has a facility in the area.
A third person fell into the water but made it to safety Tuesday, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. However, McMillan said the report he has at the Coast Guard in Memphis indicates that only two people fell into the river.
The Coast Guard has been searching within 10 miles south of the spot of the accident and was planning a search for Wednesday night that would search farther down the river, McMillan said.
A wildlife officer with the Game and Fish Commission and personnel from the Mississippi County sheriff’s office were also searching Wednesday.
The Coast Guard in Memphis is conducting the investigation.
Neither Stephens nor McMillan had any information about the identification of the missing workers, and McMillan said he did not know who they worked for or which company was operating the barge.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/10/2014