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 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
7 Illegal Crossers Saved in US Border Rescues
 Brady McCombs - Arizona Daily Star
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| | Despite the imposing barrier stretching along the U.S.-Mexican border, Senior Border Patrol Agent Jim Hawkins and another agent's vehicle are sheltered behind a fence, which protects him from rocks hurled across the wall at agents. (Bill Tiernan /Virginian-Pilot) |
Seven illegal border crossers swept away by rushing flood-waters inside a Nogales tunnel Tuesday night were rescued by Border Patrol officers and firefighters.
Three Border Patrol agents opened a manhole at Morley Avenue and East Street about 8 p.m. and crawled through a smaller tunnel to reach the larger Morley Avenue tunnel, said Sean King, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
They found a 35-year-old woman from Puebla, Mexico, clinging to a piece of rebar as the swift-moving floodwaters rushed past, he said. They had her tie a rope around her waist and then pulled her across the water and helped her out of the tunnel, King said.
She was taken to Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital in Nogales and survived.
At about the same time farther south near the Dennis DeConcini port of entry, firefighters with the Nogales Fire Department entered the tunnel through a staircase and helped rescue six people, said Juan Pablo Guzman, a city of Nogales spokesman. Members of the group ranged from 10 to 20 years old.
There were two children, two adult men and two adult women among the six rescued, he said. They didn't need medical attention and were turned over to the Border Patrol.
The flood was triggered by two storms that hit Nogales Tuesday afternoon and evening, said Glenn Lader, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The first rain came down about 3 p.m. and the second about 7 p.m., he said. The airport in Nogales recorded 0.48 of an inch of rain, he said.
The Morley and Grand Avenue tunnels are often used by border crossers looking for a way to sneak underneath the border and into Nogales, Ariz. When it rains, they fill up fast and become dangerous.
On Aug. 6, Nogales firefighters recovered the body of a 21-year-old Sinaloa man in the tunnel. At least nine bodies have been found in the tunnels since 2000, officials said.
Tuesday's rescue was the first in the tunnels this year. On July 27, 2006, officials rescued 34 illegal crossers and found three others dead in the Grand Avenue tunnel following overnight storms that flooded the underground drainage passageways.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com. |
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