Thread: Trio survives trip down the drain

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Trio survives trip down the drain

Jose Yanez, the City of Nogales wastewater compliance specialist is next to manhole 95. Two illegal immigrants were pulled out Monday night after they were swept some 12 miles north of the Morley Wash. Smuggler surfaces two days later

By Jesse Froehling



As six illegal immigrants made their way north Monday night, Sept.18, three of them descended into an uncovered manhole near the Nogales Wash on Moreley Avenue and Washington Street to hide from Border Patrol agents. The plan allegedly was to sit tight until the agents were gone, but the wastewater in the pipe in which they hid can rush as fast as 14 cubic feet per second.

Battered and bloody

Despite their best efforts, the three were swept away and when rescue workers pulled out two of them about two hours later, they were battered, bloody and exhausted. The sewage had swept them 12 miles north. In places, the pipe, which channels sewage from Mexico to the wastewater treatment plant in Rio Rico, is 24 inches wide and can be completely full of water and sewage for a length of 500 feet.

At about 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nogales police arrested three persons at the wash on Morley Avenue identified as 42-year-old Jose Bruno, 15-year-old Moises Morales and his 23-year-old cousin, Juan Morales, said Juan Pablo Guzman, spokesman for the city. The three are from San Salvador, Hidalgo, Mexico.

When they were arrested, they told officers that three other people had fallen into a manhole near the wash: The pollero, or smuggler who was guiding them and who's name they didn't know; Juan Morales' wife, 17-year-old Imelda Guevara Lopez; as well as Juan and Moises' uncle, 36-year-old Guadalupe Lopez Aldano.

Rescue workers immediately reacted and at 8 p.m., Jose Yanez, the City of Nogales wastewater compliance specialist, led them to manhole No. 95 near the Ritz Produce Company building in Rio Rico.

Yanez said he had received reports from area firefighters who heard voices coming from manholes further south along the sewer trunk line.

Yanez has worked with the so-called International Outfall Interceptor for 20 years. He said he knew that Manhole No. 95, known as a vault for its large size, would be the only access where the three would have a chance of being rescued. At that point, the line doglegs right toward the wastewater treatment plant. Yanez knew it was the only spot where they might be held up long enough to be pulled free. The vault is about the size of a large shower stall.

Stinking pit

On Wednesday, Yanez showed a reporter the vault. At its bottom, the putrid water churns in the dark and causes an almost unbearable stench.

"We waited about 15 minutes and sure enough, they (Imelda and Guadalupe) popped out of the water right there," Yanez said.

The IOI is big enough to walk through nearly upright in some places. In other places, it narrows to two feet in diameter.

Wednesday morning the missing smuggler turned up as well. He climbed out of a manhole near Mariposa Recycling on Hohokam Drive with the help of a worker. The worker washed him off as best as he could and gave the man new clothes.

"He was crying and bloody with road rash all over him," Yanez said. "But as soon as he got new clothes, he took off."

Imelda and Guadalupe are being treated at Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital. They are fine, said Mario Figueroa of the Mexican Consulate.

"It's a miracle they're alive, I can't imagine what it would be like, getting swept through that pipe full of raw sewage in the dark just hoping you can keep your head above water,"

Yanez said.

The Nogales and Rio Rico Fire Departments, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department, the Nogales Police Department, the U.S. Section of the International Boundray and Water Commission and the Border Patrol worked on the operation, Guzman said.

Oh My.....words fail me!

Amazing story.

I hope Imelda and Guadalupe are not in the prenatal ward.