Thread: Border Patrol helps rescue 34 from flooded tunnel

http://www.americanpatrol.com/CBP/PRESS ... 60727.html

Posted by AP July 27, 2006

Border Patrol helps rescue 34 from flooded tunnel

Nogales, AZ -- Today, at 5:30 a.m., Border Patrol Agents and Nogales Police Officers rescued 34 illegal aliens from the Grand Tunnel due to a major rainstorm.

The individuals in the tunnel were attempting to enter the United States illegally through a drainage tunnel that runs from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico into Nogales, AZ. When they were encountered, the illegal aliens were clinging to the sides of the tunnel. It is believed that four other individuals were washed further down the tunnel and a search is ongoing.

The 34 people rescued were later identified as being citizens of Mexico and illegally in the United States. Several more Border Patrol Agents, Nogales Fire Department and the Santa Cruz Search and Rescue Team responded to assist with the rescue.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control, and protection of our Nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Published: 07.27.2006

Rescues, road closures result of storm
Search called off for 4 presumed swept away
STARNET
A search has been called off for four people swept away while illegally entering the country through a flooded wash in Nogales early Thursday and officials aren't certain whether they drowned or were able to get out on their own.
About 5:30 a.m., Border Patrol agents rescued 34 people attempting to cross into the United States through the Grand Avenue tunnel in Nogales when a storm hit, said Sean King, a spokesman for the agency's Tucson sector.
Nogales police officers and firefighters searched the wash from the point of the rescue to the city limits and found nothing, calling off their search by about 12:30 p.m., said city spokesman Juan Pablo Guzman.
Santa Cruz County's search and rescue team joined with deputies, firefighters and Border Patrol agents in the search, from where city officials left off to Ruby Road, about 10 miles from the border, said Sheriff Tony Estrada. County officials called off their search about 2 p.m.
"There was no trace of anybody, but we will continue to be watchful."
On the Mexican side of the border, the wash is covered, and the tunnel formed is used frequently for smuggling both drugs and people into the United States.
Overnight rains began quickly filling the wash and by 4 a.m. had created a flash-flood situation sweeping the group downstream.
Border Patrol agents, the Nogales police and fire departments and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department worked together to rescue the 34 people, King said.
"Our agents were pulling people out of the water and saw four people swept away. It's possible we saw four people who were later pulled out of the water," King said. "We're not absolutely sure."
In Avra Valley, firefighters rescued a woman who was swept away in a flooded wash in Pinal County Thursday morning, an official said.
The woman was driving down East Missile Base Road, near Interstate 10, around 9 a.m. in a sport utility vehicle when she attempted to cross a flooded wash, said Capt. Paul Petersen of the Avra Valley Fire District.
Initial reports were that the SUV was almost completely covered with water and only the roof could be seen, he said.
The woman managed to get herself out of the vehicle, but was then swept downstream for a short distance until she could grab hold of a tree, he said.
When firefighters arrived, they threw a rope to the woman and were able to pull her out of the water, Petersen said. She was not injured.
"Any time there is water flowing in a wash, there is no real way of knowing how deep it is or what is going on underneath the water," Petersen said.
"Avoid driving through flooded roadways at all costs."
A flood warning has been cancelled for small streams in Pima County with just a small chance of rain through the afternoon.
The National Weather Service already allowed to expire an urban and small stream flood advisory for southeastern Pinal, eastern Pima, Santa Cruz and south central Cochise counties.
Cloud cover will persist over the Tucson area, but the National Weather Service forecasters don't expect widespread rainfall to return until Thursday night. Rainfall overnight and into Friday is expected to be heavy and a flood warning is anticipated.
The chance of rain is 50 percent for Thursday night, Friday and Saturday.
The likelihood of rain will drop to 40 percent by Sunday and 30 percent by Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/139656

Published: 07.27.2006
Santa Cruz county officials call off search for missing migrants
By CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen
Rescuers have called off the search for four illegal immigrants who are believed to have died when they were swept down a flooded tunnel connecting Nogales, Son., and Nogales, Ariz., early this morning.
Rescuers followed the wash about ten miles north of the border, but called off the search around 1:00 pm.
"If they are there, they are not alive," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. "It's possible the bodies got stuck in the mud and could surface again during another storm. We've found people like that before."
On Wednesday, officials found the bodies of four other illegal immigrants who apparently died heat exposure, three in the desert west of Tucson and one near Sonoita.
At 5:30 this morning, U.S. Border Patrol spotted a large group of people clinging to the side of the flooded Grand Tunnel in Nogales after a heavy rain storm. Border Patrol pulled 34 people out of the tunnel with the assistance of other local law enforcement agencies.
Members of the group said another four people had been carried north, down the wash, said Juan Pablo Guzman, city of Nogales spokesman.
Illegal immigrants often use the tunnel, which covers a natural wash that can flood easily during the monsoon season, to enter the United States, said Estrada.
"They're not aware of the terrain here, the flash floods and danger, so they venture into the arroyos and attempt to cross over undetected."
Migrants might be using the tunnels more because of increased Border Patrol presence on land, Estrada said.
The last reported death in the wash occurred two years ago, on July 26, 2004, when a 32-year-old Mexican woman drowned, while her 12- and 14-year-old daughters survived, Guzman said.
On Wednesday, Border Patrol found the bodies of two men and two woman, said Border Patrol spokesman Jesus Rodriguez.
At 2:30 Wednesday morning, Border Patrol agents encountered a man near the village of Cowlic on the Tohono O'odham Nation who told them that his sister-in-law had fallen sick in the desert, Rodriguez said.
The man told the agents their smuggler had left the two behind.
Tohono O'odham police officers found the woman's body at 10 a.m.
Soon after, at 11:20 a.m., Border Patrol agents found another body on the reservation near the village of Hickiwan, east of Ajo, Rodriguez said.
At 7:35 a.m., Border Patrol agents found the decomposing body of a woman near Sierrita Mountain Road southeast of Three Points.
In Santa Cruz County, near Sonoita, a resident reported finding a dead body near Babocomari Ranch. The deceased was a Hispanic male in his mid-30s, Rodriguez said.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/20540.php