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Chrishayden
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Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2428
Registered: 03-2004
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 04:01 pm: | 
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Five drown in Meramec River
By Todd C. Frankel and Bill Bryan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Jul. 10 2006
They were miles from the perceived dangers of their inner-city St. Louis
neighborhood, dozens of children on a church picnic along the Meramec River.
They played in the water along a small beach surrounded by oak trees and dirt
bluffs. It was an afternoon respite from the familiar asphalt streets.
But the scene Sunday night at Castlewood State Park turned chaotic as one child
slipped beneath the water's tranquil surface and others rushed to help.
Five children, including four siblings, drowned. At least four of the victims
did not know how to swim.
Confusion reigned as rescuers struggled to determine how many children were
missing. Was it three? Was it four? Even a day later, an exact accounting of
who was there and what happened proved impossible.
"That's one thing the investigation is trying to touch upon. . . . We don't
know what the supervision was," Sgt. Ralph Bledsoe of the Missouri State Water
Patrol said Monday.
Yet Edris Moore, who lost four of her eight children, insisted Monday she was
not angry.
"They went on to be with the Lord," Moore, 36, said as she clutched her
pastor's hand. "I know I will see them again in heaven."
The children were on an outing organized by the St. Louis Dream Center, an
outpost of the well-known Joyce Meyer Ministries that has worked hard to
transform a depressed corner of the city. The Dream Center holds frequent
interdenominational religious services and outreach programs, even cutting the
grass at some neighborhood homes.
Sunday's trip was intended as a celebration for the Dream Center's volunteers.
Neighborhood children were invited to join in.
Police estimated that at least 50 children and 10 adult chaperones traveled to
Castlewood State Park in Ballwin. The Rev. Jeff Allensworth, who leads the
Dream Center, said he did not know exactly how many people were on the trip. He
said the group took three large vans full of people to the river for a barbecue
and swim.
"It was not a dangerous situation," he said. "There were lots of heroic people
there. It could have been worse."
Jackie Whitt, who attends the Dream Center, said she decided against sending
any of her 10 children because she was concerned about supervision.
"I figured it was a lot of teens and not enough adults," Whitt, 36, said during
a visit to the center on Monday. "They were too much over their heads with this
one. They should have had a lot more supervision."
Several people who live near the Dream Center said they were surprised to hear
about the trip to the river.
"We were always taught you don't swim in the Meramec," said Thomas Hill, 75,
who has run a barbershop in the neighborhood for four decades. "They shouldn't
have been out on the river, period."
Near where the drownings occurred a series of hiking trails run parallel by the
river. Visitors walk within feet of deer foraging for food. This stretch of
water is not considered especially dangerous for swimmers, though it has a
slight current, according to the water patrol.
"You have to take precautions," said the patrol's Lou Amighetti.
Authorities are not exactly sure what happened, but about 6:30 p.m. Sunday one
of the children fell into a steep drop-off in the sand or was caught in an
undercurrent. Other children tried helping. A panic followed.
An off-duty lifeguard who happened to be swimming nearby with her family rushed
over, according to authorities. She pulled at least one child from the water
and tried unsuccessfully to revive him.
Other victims were recovered throughout the night, with the last pulled from
the river at about 6 a.m. Monday. The children were found near each other in 8
to 12 feet of water.
Four of the victims were Moore's children: Damon Johnson, 17; Ryan Mason, 14;
Dana Johnson, 13; and Bryant Barnes, 10. Damon died trying to rescue his
siblings, authorities said.
The fifth victim was Deandra Sherman, 16, who lived on Anderson Avenue, a few
blocks from the Dream Center. His mother, who has two surviving children,
conferred with attorneys on Monday but declined to comment.
A sixth child pulled from the river was released from the hospital Monday
night. Police declined to release the teen's name.
The youngest victim, Bryant, was remembered as a member of the chess team who
recently won a first-place trophy in a districtwide chess tournament. He was
also a star on the basketball court.
"Mom was involved, always cheering her son on," recalled Brian Zimmerman,
Bryant's principal at Ashland Elementary.
Moore provides an example of the profound effect the Dream Center has had in
this North Side neighborhood. She started out as a volunteer at the center.
"But we just fell in love with her and her family," Allensworth said.
Moore was hired to work in the kitchen, and she now lives in a church-owned
house near the Dream Center. One of her surviving sons is currently in Oklahoma
doing religious outreach.
Standing outside her house with Allensworth, Moore said finding out exactly
what happened on the river "really doesn't concern me."
But she said she knew her children could not swim. She expected them only to
wade in the river.
"It was not a swimming thing they were going (on)," she said.
A few blocks away, at the house of 16-year-old Deandra, family members sat
outside waiting for two lawyers to arrive.
Deandra's little brother, who appeared to be about 10, sat on the front steps.
More people crowded the home's front yard and the young boy, dressed in a white
T-shirt and jeans, walked across the street to sit on a neighbor's steps.
He stared at a small twig in his hands, his brow furrowed. An ice cream truck
slowly rolled by, ringing a bell and playing music.
He never looked up.
St. Louis Dream Center
The center, founded in 2000, is an effort by televangelist Joyce Meyer's
ministry to help the poor and homeless in a hardscrabble part of north St.
Louis.
Where: The center is at 4324 Margaretta Avenue, formerly Most Holy
Rosary Catholic Church, which closed in 1994. It is four blocks west of
Fairground Park in a neighborhood that suffers from blight. Joyce Meyer
Ministries calls the center "a healing place for a hurting world."
What it offers: The Dream Center offers a wide range of
Christian-based social service programs. Staff members have delivered food to
the homeless and brought them to the center for religious services. The center
also provides transitional housing and has activities and services for children.
Who runs it: Joyce Meyer, an internationally known television
evangelist, and her husband, Dave Meyer, run the ministry and broadcast from a
52-acre complex in the Fenton area.
Other multiple drownings in area rivers
Feb. 26, 2005: Two men from St. Louis drown at Lost Valley Lake
Resort, near Owensville. They take a paddleboat from a storage building and put
it in the lake without realizing a plug is missing from the bottom.
June 5, 2005: Fifteen-year-old twin brothers from Alton drown in a
water-filled pit in Bethalto after stepping off an underwater ledge.
July 16, 1998: A St. Charles couple drown after their pleasure boat
collides with a string of 16 barges on the Illinois River.
July 3, 1998: A father and son drown in the Mississippi River, about
a half-mile north of the Meramec River, after their johnboat capsizes.
July 23, 1993: Four boys and two counselors from St. Joseph's Home
for Boys drown at Cliff Cave Park on the Mississippi River after a flash flood
sweeps through the cave. The group was on a caving expedition.
July 4, 1993: An 8-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl from St. Louis
drown while wading in the Meramec River in Mint Springs Park, about 125 miles
southwest of the city.
July 7, 1991: A man from St. Louis and a man from East St. Louis
drown in the Mississippi River in Lincoln County, while trying to retrieve a
fishing boat that had drifted off a ramp.
Post-Dispatch reporters Stephen Deere, Shane Graber, David Hunn and Tim
O'Neil contributed to this report. |
Robynmarie
Veteran Poster
Username: Robynmarie
Post Number: 58
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 12:42 am: |
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This is unbelievably sad and tragic.
May all they all rest in peace in God's arms. |
Ngo
Regular Poster
Username: Ngo
Post Number: 40
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 12:03 pm: |
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RIP. :-( |
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