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Search Continues For Missing Woman In Farmington River

NEW HARTFORD – A day-long search for a woman whose raft capsized in the Farmington River ended at sundown Saturday and was to resume Sunday morning. Rache...

NEW HARTFORD – A day-long search for a woman whose raft capsized in the Farmington River ended at sundown Saturday and was to resume Sunday morning.

Rachel Greene, 33, of 24 Prospect St. in New Hartford, was on an inflatable raft that tumbled over in the river early Saturday, state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesperson Cyndy Chanaca said.

Residents at a nearby condominium complex heard people out on the river and alerted emergency responders at 5:35 a.m., Chanaca said. State environmental conservation police responded to the area and were told that two rafts entered the water near Route 44, about a mile west of Satan’s Kingdom State Recreation Area, at about 2:30 a.m.

The woman and a man were on one raft and two men were on another. They had traveled a short distance when the raft holding the woman and man hit a rock and capsized, Chanaca said. The man swam to shore, and the two men on the second raft also made it to shore.

Conservation police, state police and town firefighters responded and searched for the woman with two boats, aircraft, two search and rescue dogs and an all-terrain vehicle, Chanaca said.

The water levels in the river have been “incredibly high,” New Hartford First Selectman Dan Jerram said. Because of beach flooding due to recent, heavy rainfalls, the Metropolitan District Commission has closed the Lake McDonough Recreation Area, which is upstream in Barkhamsted.

The MDC announced in an earlier news release that heavy rainfall expected Thursday “may result in excessive spillage from Savill Dam, causing Lake McDonough to overspill to the East Branch of the Farmington River, prohibiting all recreational activities until further notice.”

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