Man drowns in Stanislaus River at Jacob Myers Park

RIVERBANK -- A diver retrieved the body of a 21-year-old man who drowned Tuesday afternoon in the Stanislaus River at Jacob Myers Park.

Members of the Stanislaus County Dive Team pulled the body out about 9:45 p.m. It was a few hundred yards west of the park's parking lot just off the south shore below the train tracks.

Three males, ages 21, 19 and 17, were in the water near the north bank of the river near the Santa Fe Road bridge, emergency crews said.

One made it to shore and another hung on to some vegetation and was rescued by firefighters from the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District, according to Lt. Mario Cisneros of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.

The victim was the older brother of the 17-year-old and a friend of the 19-year-old.

The two were in their swim trunks along with distraught family members and friends at the park as the dive team worked near the base of one of the railroad pilings.

Dotty Nygard, a member of the Riverbank City Council and an emergency room nurse, said she heard the helicopters overhead and came to the park.

"It's a sad day in Riverbank," she said. "You've got three young boys who grew up here and enjoy going to their favorite water hole.

"It's preventable. That's the hard thing."

Temperatures in the mid-90s drove many people to the park Tuesday.

Unfortunately, the wet and snowy winter and spring, coupled with rising temperatures, have made rivers extremely cold and dangerous.

Area rivers are averaging temperatures in the mid- to lower 50s, and swimmers can be overcome by the cold water.

Hypothermia is a sudden decrease in body temperature that can be fatal. Warning signs include uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, drowsiness and exhaustion, according to the National Weather Service.

Emergency personnel have said with the water running so cold, high and fast, it's critical that those getting in the rivers to swim or boat must wear life jackets because it's the only thing that will save them.

But officials stress that swimming in rivers this time of year is ill-advised, and rafting should be done only with an experienced guide.

Those facts weren't lost on Jacob Myers Park host Bob Eden.

He said he rescued a teenager two weeks ago. Tuesday afternoon, another rescue was conducted on the river about four miles to the west when rafters not wearing life jackets went into the water, Eden said.

"People are ignorant to the conditions of all these rivers," he said. "They are three times higher than they have been for 15 years. People are coming out to the river expecting it to behave the way it has the past 15 years and it doesn't."

Eden estimated that there were about 600 people at the park Tuesday, about 400 at the time of the drowning.

By early evening, law enforcement officials cleared the park so rescuers could do their work in private.

A number of agencies had boats in the water looking for the man.

Eden said he expects there will be similar rescues this summer as temperatures rise.

Despite such efforts, it's already been a deadly spring on the region's waterways.

Authorities in San Joaquin County reportedly found the body of a man who disappeared while swimming in the Stanislaus River on Monday afternoon at Caswell Memorial State Park near Ripon.

In Tuolumne County, search and rescue crews were looking for a man who fell into the South Fork of the Stanislaus River near Lyons Lake while fishing with his family Saturday.

A Modesto man died in April after his boat capsized in the Tuolumne River. The body of a man who jumped in the San Joaquin River to rescue a 4-year-old boy was recovered in May. The boy's body was found a week later.

Bee staff writer Erin Tracy can be reached at etracy@modbee.com or (209) 578-2366.