Crews continued the search on Friday for the Matilda (Mattie) Sheils, 2, and Conrad Sheils, 9 months, who were swept away during a flash flooding along Washington Crossing Road (Route 532.)
Upper Makefield Township police said search teams and K-9 units were sifting through “immense debris piles.”
Along Houghs Creek, searchers and Philadelphia Police Department officers with dogs looked through debris. Heavy equipment was moving along the creek to aid searchers.
Fire crews and police from several agencies were staging along Washington Street.
A resident on Cox Avenue said crews had been working in teams throughout the day as they searched the banks of the creek and piles of limbs and downed trees that had been pushed by the floodwaters.
“Unfortunately, after consulting with numerous dive teams, the conditions in the area of the river where the search needs to be conducted, made it impossible to safely dive,” police said after search efforts wound down for Friday.
On Saturday, authorities plan to return with additional K-9 units.
Since last Saturday evening, there has been an extensive search of the land and water downstream from the flooding. Five bodies were recovered, but the two children remain missing.
Search crews from Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been out all week.
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 victims who were killed in the flooding.
