After scouring the banks of the Puyallup River, crews suspended their search late Sunday for a 29-year-old Buckley man who went missing after being swept away on an inner tube.
The man’s friends called 911 after noticing he had floated away near the 12800 block of McMillan Road just north of Orting and they couldn’t reach him. Another rafter disappeared at the same time, but was later found and treated for injuries.
Swift-water rescue crews and aircraft equipped with heat-seeking systems looked for the man until 10 p.m. The search will resume this morning.
“He may or may not be drowned, we don’t know. We hope not,” Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. “Let this be a warning. The river is powerful.”
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com
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