Difficult Conditions for Searchers

By Debbie Williams Reporter

It's like the proverbial, needle in a haystack only the haystacke is 100 square miles of Mobile Bay. Difficult Conditions for Searchers

Published: Wed, January 09, 2008 - 7:39 pm

Debbie Williams

Searching depths of 65 feet or more can be challenging to say the least but that's just part of what search crews are facing as they look for the bodies of four children allegedly thrown of Dauphin Island Bridge by their father Lam Loung.
Don Matsler is a former search and rescue diver in Tennessee. He and his wife Angel now call Dauphin Island home.
Angel says at first she couldn't believe what appears to be an inevitable truth. "At this point I'm pretty well resolved that it hit me pretty hard that somebody would do that to some babies."
They've watched as boats have drifted back and forth under the bridge while choppers buzz overhead."It's really affected a lot of captains and everybody on the island," he says. Matsler knows what divers are facing as they search the water for the four tiny bodies. "In this cold water," he says shaking his head, "The minute they hit it's just almost an impossible thing. The wind was blowing last night depending on which way the current was going it's almost next to impossible for the next few days and it could be an impossible task all the way."
Fog rolled in late in the afternoon suspending the search until Thursday. The threat of severe weather could hamper search efforts then but crews expect to be back on the water first thing Thursday morning.