Local News
TVA to lower water in search
Still no sign of Dalton boaters
The Tennessee Valley Authority will cooperate with search and recovery agencies later this week by lowering water levels in the Tennessee River near where three people from Dalton went missing, authorities said.
Five men from Dalton were fishing the tailwaters at the Nickajack Lake Dam Saturday night when their boat was pulled into turbulent water and capsized. Two brothers, Hildebrando Hureta-Hernandez, 14, and Norberto Hureta-Hernandez, 26, were rescued by another fisherman about two miles downstream.
The three missing men have been identified. Hilavio Soniga, 64, and Trancito Garcia, 32, were identified by officials with the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA). Angel Ocampo, 49, who was said to be driving the boat, was identified by his brother to a reporter from another newspaper on Monday.
“Nothing turned up in the search this morning, just a few more pieces of the boat,” said Steve Lamb, director of the Marion County (Tenn.) Emergency Management Agency, at mid-afternoon on Tuesday. “We have a meeting tonight, and there will be discussions (with TVA) to slow down the flow of the river. It takes awhile to do that because of the number of dams involved, but then we’ll be able to use sonar and more underwater cameras in the search.”
Lamb said foot patrols on the river banks of the Guntersville Reservoir will also search, but the steep terrain makes it difficult.
“They’ll mainly be looking into brush piles,” he said. “We’ll have elements from all over east Tennessee here this weekend, and we’ll be coordinating with the TWRA people. Right now they’re telling us the water flow is still making it difficult to search.”
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