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River nearly low enough to search for missing DJ's car
But whether or not the vehicle of missing Wharton County radio personality Bobby Jones is submerged in the Colorado River is still unknown - and will likely remain that way until at least the middle of next week. Law enforcement officials had originally planned to send in a dive team on Monday to attempt a salvage operation. Initial forecasts of river levels and flows appeared to be ideal - so good in fact that Department of Public Safety divers and Lower Colorado River Authority rangers scouted the river this past Wednesday. "They were doing a grid search trying to map the bottom of the river," said Lt. Daniel Marek of the Wharton County Sheriff's Department. But river forecasts have since changed - unfavorably. Upstream rain in the Austin area is to blame. Now, instead of the river falling to nearly 12 feet as initially anticipated, it is forecast to drop to only 14 feet by Monday. Not until Wednesday is the river forecast to be near 12 feet - the level law enforcement officials want before attempting any underwater operation. Law enforcement officials are basing their plan of action on forecasts made by the National Weather Service's River Forecast Center. That forecast can be viewed by the public at the following web page: www.srh. noaa.gov/wgrfc/stalist.php?func t=fcst&shefid=WHAT2. It's not just the river's level that is a concern. Flow is equally important, and perhaps more so in light of the danger it poses to anyone getting into the water. Marek said divers and river rescue teams consider water flows of 880 cubic feet per second and higher to be dangerous. The Colorado River's flow in Wharton on Friday was 4,040 cfs. "That's more than four times as fast as it needs to be," Marek said. The flow was evident even from a shoreline vantage point this past Wednesday as DPS divers and LCRA rangers took soundings. Boats stayed in the water from about noon to 10 p.m. as sonar and probes were used to develop a better picture of what may lie beneath. One interesting discovery was large chunks of concrete near the spot where tire tracks had been noticed back in June leading into the water. When asked if the concrete may have been mistaken earlier for a car, Marek said it's not likely. "They were able to find that that (concrete) was there in some places, but they've found many (other) objects that could be a car," he said. "But as far as being absolutely positive that they've found the car, no, that hasn't happened." Tire tracks were spotted on June 23 leading down into the river near the Colorado River Bridge in Wharton. That coincided with the mysterious disappearance of Bobby Jones, a polka music performer and employee of El Campo Radio Station KULP. Investigators began considering that Jones's vehicle may have made the tracks after his license plate was found stuck in a sapling at the water's edge several days later. A rain-swollen river prevented officials from doing any underwater investigation. Nearly three months later, increased river levels are still preventing any type of salvage. That's created a storm of criticism from the public. Some accusations have even been made that the Sheriff's Department - the lead agency on the investigation - has "dragged its feet" on the case. Marek said that couldn't be further from the truth. "Why would we want to do that? This is something that's a top priority," he said. "We just haven't had the conditions to do so. It's very frustrating." When divers finally are able to enter the river, there's expected to be a large crowd of onlookers on hand that will have to be contended with, Marek said. He said that location is difficult since it is near the convergence of two roadways (one of which runs along a bridge), a restaurant, a public park and an area that has frequent traffic. "There's multiple factors that will have to be controlled," he said. "We may have to hold a shift over." |
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