Posted on 07/20/2026 6:17:44 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Two women and three men were pulled from the Scioto River, outside Columbus.
Five people died in the Scioto River in central Ohio after one of them went in for a swim on Sunday and began struggling and others tried to rescue the person, the authorities said.
The group had gathered by the river near the O’Shaughnessy Reservoir, just northwest of Columbus, to enjoy a summer evening and to fish, the Delaware County sheriff, Jeffrey Balzer, said at a news conference on Monday.
At some point one person in the group decided to swim, and “that’s when the tragedy started to occur,” Sheriff Balzer said. That person started struggling in the water, he said, and two others went into the river to try to help. Then those two began to struggle, he said, prompting two more people to venture into the river.
At about 9 p.m., a driver noticed a young child who was “clearly distraught,” running alongside a road by the river, Sheriff Balzer said. The driver called 911 and reported that the child had said that his “family was in the river,” Sheriff Balzer said.
Firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers responded and found two adult women in the river; they were taken to hospitals and pronounced dead, Sheriff Balzer said.
Rescue crews continued searching the river until they found the bodies of the remaining three people, all adult men, at about 2 p.m. on Monday, Tracy Whited, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said in an email.
Sheriff Balzer said the child and another child who had been with the group were in the care of the county’s child welfare agency. The children are 6 and 7 years old.
It was not immediately clear how the people in the group were related, but Sheriff Balzer said...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
My College had a Degree requirement to pass a swim test.
Three laps and then tread water for one minute.
Many classmates had to work hard to learn to swim.
I’m sure it saved lives.
Hobart College, Geneva, New York. 1962
Every year some inner city church group brings kids to the Meramec to “wade”. Often, tragedy ensues.
You have to figure in that fat floats.
I don’t know about Hispanics, but, the old joke about Filipinos (and Filipinas) was: “Ten thousand islands* and nobody knows how to swim.”
My wife is a perfect example. I taught her how to float, although with her very low body fat until the last few years, she still had to kick a little to stay up.
*The actual number is considered to be approximately 7,641 islands.
If Magellan had been able to kick off his armor quickly(?), odds are he could have just swum away from his attackers. IF he knew how to swim, of course.
So. Franklin county children’s service doesn’t have interpreters?
I had good enough training at our local YMCA’s pool that I even did some swim instructing for a while. I’ve swum across a small lake when a bit younger (about 65 y/o) under calm conditions. (I float better after about age 55 than when I did as a skinny kid.)
Rivers, tho’, are much trickier / hazardous.
Yup, I’m sure it’s illegals from Mexico or that border.
Illegals in Maryland love to flock en masse to our rivers, yes even our historic sites and have huge picnics and leave trash everywhere. You’ll find it filmed on YouTube. They have huge crowds IN the river together.
If anyone else did it, the rangers and police would be on them, but no, we’re sanctuary, and they have another set of laws for illegals. Let them do what they want.
It’s outrageous.
True.
“… went in for a swim on Sunday and began struggling and others tried to rescue the person, the authorities said.”
I understand. My lifesaving instructor told me that a struggling person was the hardest to save. He demonstrated that on my test, and I won. I passed.
Of course, I was much younger and in pretty good shape. I might try now, but it would be dicey.
I know he drowned but is that where it happened?
And brain eating amoebas.
Saw this and thought they are not familiar with this river. It took their lives.
People in ohio swim in rivers all the time. Snapping turtles and water moccasins won’t bother you, they clear out because they want to be left alone and you just scared off all their prey. If you aren’t a stringer full of fish they aren’t interested in you. To get bit by either the snapper or a moccasin/cottonmouth, you pretty much have to stick your foot right in their mouth, or step right on them forcing them to react.
Here in Florida where there are gators too, you just stay sober, don’t splash around like a wounded deer, and don’t swim during gator evening dinner hours. Most animals aren’t interested in dining until after the heat of day, after 4 pm.
I’m in ohio. On Friday night there was a lot of rain in the area... maybe the water was higher and faster than usual
What the heck... didn’t anyone know how to swim?!
Bkmk.
I have spent a lot of time visiting the area north of Columbus this year. (My hostess attended the 2016 Inauguration Ball in Washington.) The area has a lot of imported obamagrants from west Africa, who more or less have flooded the Metroparks, the chain of parks around Columbus. They have been imported in an effort to make Ohio a bluer shade of purple. For the most part they are not troublemakers, but the members of both sexes have far too much free time, and kids, lots of kids.
“there is a language barrier in communicating with the children“...in the middle of America...
.
Ohio?
Creole?
Area around Columbus has a lot of Haitians and Muslims.
Yep, very true. Drinking and swimming is as bad for a person as drinking and driving.
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