One Diver Dies, Two Presumed Dead

One diver died and two were presumed dead after plunging into the murk of an underground irrigation canal on Saturday. A fourth diver was in critical condition.

The incident began Saturday morning when two divers looking for a submerged vehicle were reported missing.

One member of a volunteer search and rescue team sent to find them died. A second search and rescue diver was saved by colleagues and is in a Yakima hospital.

“We have no idea how four divers with such experience got into this problem,” Yakima County Undersheriff Lane Roberts said. “That’s why we are not sending anybody else in there.”

The deaths occurred in the Roza Canal near Zillah, about 20 miles south of Yakima.

The divers all plunged into a tubular, underground section of the canal where the elevation gradually drops some 100 feet over a distance of about a quarter-mile.

The two divers for the Roza Irrigation District were identified as Marty F. Rhode of Sunnyside and John M. Eberle of Grandview. Their ages were not available. They are presumed drowned, the sheriff’s department said.

Two volunteer rescue divers went into the canal shortly after noon. They were identified as Rusty Hauber, 34, a Yakima firefighter, and Charlie Mestaz, 36, of Moxee, a volunteer firefighter. Mestaz is in the intensive care unit at Providence Hospital Yakima. Hauber was pronounced dead at the hospital.