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HAVERSTRAW — A 48-year-old Pearl River woman fell overboard into the Hudson River after a wake hit her boat, authorities said today.
Katherine Mannon was struggling to get back to shore against the current when rescuers heard her screams for help and plucked her out of the water.
“She was fighting it,” Haverstraw Fire Department spokesman Patrick McNamee told The Journal News Wednesday morning, hours after the rescue. “She was swimming to land. She was swimming toward the bright lights of the Tilcon quarry.”
Mannon was at the center of a two-hour-long frantic search that began shortly after 1 a.m. when she entered the water wearing a life jacket from a boat about 200 yards from the quarry. Her husband and 10-year-old son were apparently sleeping on board, McNamee said.
“Her claim was she was on the deck of the boat and a wake hit and knocked her overboard,” said William Barbera, chief of patrol of the Rockland County Sheriff's Office.
A Rockland County Sheriff’s officer and Haverstraw police officer on shore heard her cries, Barbera said.
McNamee, who served as fire chief until April, said authorities then were able to get a spotlight on her and a Stony Point fire boat picked her up “in less than five minutes.” She was found in the river between the boat and land. She was taken to Nyack Hospital to be evaluated.
“This actually was a happy ending,” McNamee said. “With all the tragedies on the river, this was a happy one.”
He was referring to the July 26 boat crash into a Tappan Zee Bridge construction barge that left two young Orangetown residents dead and four others injured.
McNamee said the husband placed a 911 call from his cell phone from the boat around 1 a.m. reporting his wife had gone missing between Stony Point and the lower part of Haverstraw. He told authorities he had been asleep on the boat and woke up to find her gone.
Marine units from Haverstraw and Stony Point fire departments were immediately dispatched. The dive team from the Thiells Fire Department headed to the Tilcon dock, which served as the staging area.
Eventually, three Westchester fire departments with boats were called in: Verplanck, Croton-on-Hudson and Irvington, joining two boats from the Rockland County Sheriff’s Marine Unit. The Westchester County Marine Unit also assisted with the search.
“Haverstraw Bay is a big area...It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” Haverstraw Fire Chief Al Lynch said.
In the meantime, firefighters and police began walking the shore along the village, passing through beaches, condominiums and a nearby state park “just looking around to see if they (saw) anyone floating in the water,” McNamee said.
McNamee has volunteered with the fire department for 36 years and said most swimming distress calls in the river are usually 10 to 15 feet off shore. He could not recall another incident in which someone went into the water late at night so far from land.
Sounds like they were anchored out overnight. They had their son with them so chances are it was not a late night excursion. Kudos to her for wearing a lifejacket while taking a dip.
