Search crews from around the region have shifted their focus almost entirely to the water in the search for the 2-year-old girl and 9-month-old boy swept away in the weekend’s fatal flash flooding.
Since Saturday evening, crews have been on land, in the water, and in the air searching for those killed and the two missing kids, siblings Matilda (Mattie) Sheils and Conrad Sheils.
“We are still in the process of searching,” Upper Makefield Township Volunteer Fire Company Chief Tim Brewer said.
The chief said the search has focused on a 117-acre section of land that stretches 1.5 miles.
“We have searched the entire flood zone more than a dozen times,” he said.
On Wednesday, search crews returned to Upper Makefield Township.
“The focus of the search will shift from a land- and creek-based to a dive search and rescue operation. And that will mean underwater assets,” Brewer said.
PHOTOS: Searchers Keep Up Efforts In Upper Makefield
Crews will still look on the land and have assets in place to work a land-based search, but that effort will be scaled back.
The Upper Makefield Township Police Department said in a Wednesday morning statement that the rainy weather was impacting search efforts.
“Unfortunately, weather and river conditions are not favorable nor conducive for what we had planned for today’s search operations. The area and conditions will be continuously monitored throughout the day and if we are able to deploy our assets we will do so. This setback has us all frustrated,” the department said.
The search has involved crews on foot, boats in the river, divers, sonar equipment, cadaver dogs, and drones.
Enzo Depiero, a 78-year-old man from Newtown Township; Susan Barnhart, a 53-year-old woman from Titusville, New Jersey; Katheryn “Katie” Seley, a 32-year-old woman from Charleston, South Carolina; Yuko Love, a 64-year-old woman from Newtown Township; and Linda Depiero, a 74-year-old woman from Newtown Township, were identified on Monday by Bucks County Coroner Meredith Buck as the victims killed in the flooding.
On Monday, all five victims’ autopsies were conducted and showed that each of the victims succumbed to drowning as a direct result of the flash flood’s relentless force, Buck said.
