CHESTER, Pa. — The search for a 6-year-old girl who was swept into a rain-swollen creek in southeastern Pennsylvania has become more of a recovery mission than a rescue mission, authorities said Sunday.
Authorities in Chester County said the child was reported missing Saturday around 7 p.m. after she slipped and fell into the fast-moving Chester Creek. Several fire companies participated in a search over the next 3 1/2 hours, while the Coast Guard continued to search throughout the night.
County Fire Commissioner John Shirley said the search entered a recovery mode Sunday, adding that models for such situations showed a survival period of about three hours.
He said rescuers were always “looking for that miracle,” but after sunrise and the opportunity to search more thoroughly, they knew “it wasn’t going to be a rescue, it was going to be a recovery.”
Boats and drones were deployed Sunday in both directions on the creek and on both sides of the Delaware River where the creek flows into it. Shirley said that given the fast currents following Saturday’s heavy rain, the child would likely have reached the river mouth within nine minutes – before the rescue operation was fully operational.
“She may have been in Delaware when we first arrived,” he said.
Chester Mayor Stefan Roots said it was unclear how the girl and her friends ended up at the creek, but that they were near the bank next to the water “at the wrong time.” He called on governments to provide safe places for children to play, and for people to ensure they know where young people play.
Chester is a city about 20 miles southwest of downtown Philadelphia, on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.