Wiring problems eyed in 3 kids' swimming deaths
The scene at German Creek Marina in Bean Station, Tenn., on July 4, 2012, hours after one boy died and another was critically injured from an apparent electrocution at Cherokee Lake. / Saul Young,AP Photo/Knoxville News Sentinel
(CBS/AP) OSAGE BEACH, Mo. - Authorities say improper wiring led to the deaths of two children at the Lake of the Ozarks on the Fourth of July.
Thirteen-year-old Alexandra Anderson and her 8-year-old brother Brayden, of Ashland, were swimming near a private dock when electricity traveled into the water.
Sgt. Paul Reinsch of the Missouri State Highway Patrol says there was no ground fault interrupter to monitor the current and trip the electricity if there was a problem.
He says the electricity could have come from several sources, including a boat lift or a pump used to power a water slide.
After the children were shocked, adults pulled the children from the water and performed CPR until medical crews arrived.
The children were taken to an area hospital where doctors pronounced them dead.
Meanwhile, investigators believe a faulty cord from a houseboat caused a swimmer in Tennessee to be electrocuted.
3 children electrocuted in Tenn. and Mo.
A 10-year-old boy died at the scene Wednesday afternoon and an 11-year-old boy was revived, but was reported on life support at a hospital.
Grainger County Sheriff Scott Layel said deputies were dispatched shortly before 2:30 p.m. to German Creek Boat Dock on Cherokee Lake where the boys encountered electrical current while swimming between two houseboats and a dock. The deputies immediately began performing CPR on the victims. The boy who was revived was taken to Morristown Hamblen Hospital and then transferred to Children's Hospital in Knoxville.
Layel said it's possible faulty wiring from a houseboat caused a short, which caused the electric current in the water, CBS News affiliate WVLT Knoxville reported.
Six other people who pulled the boys from the water also came in contact with electrical current, but did not receive life-threatening injuries.
Names were not immediately released.
Betty Hamilton was on a boat with her family when she saw two young boys jump off the ladder on this boat into the water, WVLT reported. "The next thing we heard was the screaming and everybody running, and somebody hollered, oh my God the kid's electrocuted," Hamilton told the station.Popular on CBSNews.com
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I did not witness that event. I do know the fellow to be reliable and does not make up fantastic stories. As far as I am concerned if he said it happened, it happened.
One thing I have witnessed is the fact that once the electrical system in a house has been flooded with muddy river water you may as well go ahead and replace almost all of it. Outlets will burn out withing 3 to 5 years if not replaced. Circuit breakers will either not trip when they are supposed to or they will burn out in a year. People don't realize it but there is a lot of chemical fertilizer in flood water. The chemicals eat away at electrical contacts and will make metal rust.
I suspect once they investigate they are going to find a service line from the shore is compromised. I would bet that these houseboats do not have overhead wires swaged over to them from a pole, probably for asthetic reasons. I'd bet they have underground service that terminates in an underwater feed cable going to the breaker box on the boat, and that cable is damaged. Maybe a boat prop ran over it.