Rescue teams resumed their search Tuesday morning for an Iowa teenager who was swept into a Cedar Rapids storm drain Monday night after heavy rainfall overwhelmed the eastern Iowa city's storm sewer system and caused raging flood waters through streets and neighborhoods, the Washington Post reported.
Logan Blake, 17, had gone to play Frisbee with two friends in northeast Cedar Rapids when he was pulled by the fast-moving water in the drain at an elementary school around 7:20 p.m. Monday, said city public safety communications coordinator Greg Buelow. But he did not explain how the teenager ended up in the drain or release any details about the incident.
Blake's friend, 17-year-old David Bliss, was also dragged into the drain as he attempted to save Blake. After traveling along the drain for more than a mile and eventually emerging in Cedar Lake, the boy walked to a hospital and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Buelow said.
The storm drain feeds into an underground concrete pipe about 4 1/2 feet wide at the school's culvert entrance. That pipe runs about a mile and a half southwest and is 10 feet in diameter where it empties into Cedar Lake, according to NBC News. With fire department crews using sonar and boats to search the body of storm sewer drain water heading into Cedar Lake, police officers searched along the path of the pipe by foot as the operation was still considered to be a rescue mission, Cedar Rapids Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian Gibson said early Tuesday.
Since rescuers have so far not been able to enter the underground sewer system due to the dangerously fast current, they will assess the situation as the day progresses to see if those conditions ease, Gibson said. Meanwhile, cameras are being used to search confined spaces.
Blake's father, Mark Blake, told ABC news that the family was holding out hope that he would be found alive. "He's a strong kid, a very athletic kid," he said. "He's got a strong will. We have every faith in the world that he's hooked on and waiting for the current to slow down."
A band of strong storms washed across the Midwest on Monday evening, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power across Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin.
