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Saul Young / AP
Evidence tape covers an electrical meter near two houseboats at German Creek Marina on Cherokee Lake in Bean Station, Tenn., on Wednesday. One boy died and another was critically injured after an apparent electrocution.
Updated at 8:40 p.m.: Three children died -- two in Missouri and one in Tennessee -- after they were shocked by electricity while swimming in lakes, authorities said.
In another tragedy, three children drowned in the Iowa River, police said.
In Missouri, 13-year-old Alexandra Anderson and her 8-year-old brother Brayden of Ashland were killed when they were shocked around noon by an unknown source of electricity while swimming near a private dock in the Lake of the Ozarks, KSHB-TV reported.
Several adults got the siblings out of the water but couldn't revive them. They were pronounced dead at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach.
The Missouri Highway Patrol said investigators were looking at electricity powering lights and a pump that supplies water to a slide children use at the dock, but they had not determined what had caused the electrocution by Wednesday evening.
The accident in Tennessee happened near the German Creek Marina on Cherokee Lake in the town of Bean Station. Two boys were swimming in the lake between two house boats when they were shocked, the Grainger County Sheriff's Office said, WBIR-TV reported.
Saul Young / AP
The scene at German Creek Marina on Cherokee Lake in Bean Station, Tenn., on Wednesday after a boy died and another was critically injured in an apparent electrocution.
Both boys, whose names were not released, were originally reported dead, but Sheriff Scott Layel said one child was revived on a medical helicopter flight.
The sheriff's department said several other people were taken to the hospital in Morristown to be checked out because bystanders trying to rescue the boys were shocked as well.
The marina was evacuated as a precaution. Authorities were searching for the source of the electric current.
Layel told the Knoxville News Sentinel that wiring in the bottom of one of the houseboats might have caused the shocks.
It was uncertain whether the boys were shocked in the water or when they touched the metal ladder of one of the houseboats, Layel said.
A visitor from California, Paul Worley, told WBIR that he was temporarily paralyzed when he jumped into the water to try to rescue one of the victims.
"We heard the screaming, and we ran down there and saw a kid and a lady in the water," Worley told WBIR from his hospital bed in Morristown.
He said he jumped into the water not knowing it was electrified.
"I went down about 3-4 feet, and I figured 'I'm dead' because by then, I knew what it was."
He said despite the shock he tried to get one of the children to a nearby jet ski.
"I know when they cut off the electricity from the boat. I didn't feel the electricity anymore," he said.
WBIR said Worley was expected to be released from Lakeway Regional Hospital Thursday.
Drowning claims three other children
In another incident, the bodies of three children were found in the Iowa River Wednesday night near Marshalltown, NBC station WHO of Des Moines reported.
The station said the children were reported missing around 6:30 p.m. and the bodies of two girls and one boy, ages 6-10, were found just before 9 p.m. Police say the children were swimming in the river.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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I thought the reason that you don't swim at a marina is that it would be easy to be run over by a boat -- not that the water might be electrically charged! Water anywhere near a marina should not be charged at all -- so if someone at the marina leans over to pick up something out of the water, they'll be shocked? Doesn't sound right to me. There should not be a charge in the water.
This is really shocking.
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Please if you put electricity around water be sure that there is a ground fault to protect you ...don't even run an extension cord that is not connected to a ground fault if it has any chance of coming in contact with water.
What a tragedy for the young children. May their Souls Rest in Peace. May God give the Strength and Courage to their families to bear this loss. May God Bless their Souls. GOD BLESS THE USA.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
Water and electricity are a dangerous mix if the electrical wiring is not installed according to the national electrical code. Prayers to the family's involved. So very sad.
My condolences to the families of all these children. May they RIP.
Godspeed to Mr. Worley's recovery. Even after getting shocked you still tried to help the child. Well done sir!
It saddens me to read of all of these deaths. Quite scary, too, the way they happened. I would have never thought a person would get electrocuted in a lake or marina unless there was lightning that hit the body of water. I guess I learned something new today. I feel so bad for all of the families involved.
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This is a tragedy....may God bless and keep you all. I am so very sorry for your losses....
The people who jumped into electrified water to rescue the kids are heroes.
What are Regulations, Rules, Standards, and Requirements for except to protect public and property?
Google: electrical codes for water dock, pool and marina installations
Marina & Dock Power: Safe and Successful Cable Installations
http://www.generalcable.com/NR/rdonlyres/43D4457B-116E-467B-97FF-2F4261A2AB5A/0/MarinaDockPowerWireWizardSellSheet4_09.pdf
Marina fueling systems require a unique blend of knowledge and skills
http://www.petroleummarine.com/marina-fueling.html
Electric Shock Drowning
This became another incident of what we have termed electric shock drowning. We have catalogued over 100 similar accidents and this listing may be requested though the e-mail address at the end of this article.
http://www.iaei.org/magazine/2007/07/electric-shock-drowning/
Please Note:
Attention Electrical Engineers a simple safety test method is needed, a simple volt, amp meter should suffice connected to a drop line, insulated pole.
This should be in the public knowledge base, because of product liabilities laws accompanying products prohibit guaranteed of safety, hence no safety test kit product is available.
Quiz:
What are Regulations, Rules, Standards, and Requirements for except to protect public and property?
As we can see product liabilities laws are to protect the companies, but to some extent the unknowing public, however writing protections for companies and the public in the same regulation is more a source of the problem than the cure. A better way is needed to protect the public from company protections and from regulations by separating them into three categories: Company liabilities, Code Regulators, and Public information.
It one thing to keep useful products off the market to protect companies, and another to have national regulating bodies issue strict guidelines, then have civil codes requiring adherence to guidelines and finally an informed public.
The only big change here is that informed public need to know that is can be informed, without using children to test for electrical hazards.
Also if we could outlaw stupidity, the internet would vanish over night.
On the news this morning they said the kids who drowned in Iowa were between 6 - 9 years old. Where were the parents?
Where were the parents in these situations.? Why was it that bystanders were doing the rescuing instead of the parents. Why were kids allowed to swim in the lake without supervision. Also, why did they not have life jackets on? I think these are ligitimate questions. Other than that, my heart goes out to the families.
Two quick lessons...electricty and water never mix well and crap flows downhill...these two alone have prevented numerous problems when rememberd..
This is just all a plain scary freak accident. Glad the rescuers who were shocked were able to survive.
Makes you think twice about jumping into any body of water where electrically charged boats are anywhere around.
May the famiies find comfort in knowing that there are people who are praying for them at this tragic time and may they find peace knowing that their children are with Jesus now.
MSNBC needs to break this story into seperate stories. The three children 6-10 in ages that drowned near Marshalltown swimming in the Iowa River needs to have it's own headline. It's getting missed in this story. I live in Iowa and grew up in Marshalltown and people need to be aware that rivers are no place for swimming. The surface of the water is very deciving. It looks like a calm lazy river but there are strong currents under the water's surface that will grab you and you can loose your life. It's not only children that drown. Last year in the Cedar River at Palasades Park outside of Cedar Rapids, a man died while his young son watched. They were fishing and some kids that were swimming off a sandbar and got in trouble and the man, who didn't know the kids, jumped in the River to save them. The kids were saved but the man lost his life.
Very sad for all.
Very Sad for all
The 2 children who died at Lake of the Ozarks are from Ashland, Mo just 10 minutes down the highway from us. It is just heartbreaking for their parents. Please anyone and everyone who has a dock at Lake of the Ozarks have them inspected for stray or improper electrical connections. Don't let another person die in another tragic accident like this. My thoughts and prayers are with the family. It is going to be a tough time for them and know that the community of Ashland wraps their arms around them to give them strength.
Sad...but stuff happens, such is life.
Tragic indeed. But this will continue (especially in fresh water) until dock and vessel wiring is installed and maintained to code. We have a relatively inexpensive devise (should be required by code) which will trigger an alarm if any current is passing through the ground system into the metal parts of a vessel or dock. I suspect that such devises are a requirement of the National Code (or should be). Same as water parks and public fountains.
It's sad that all of these deaths we're children. I live at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri and every 4th of July I expect multiple deaths on the lake, typically due to intoxication of ignorant tourists who think they know how to properly operate watercraft in the first place, however, I'm always shocked when innocent children are those whom have been in harms way.
Shame on those for bringing politics into an article of lost childrens' lives. Have you no respect? THAT is what is wrong with this world. May these families find peace through God. God bless the lives the children had, more angels will be in the sky watching over us all.
This is sad and all... but angels? Seriously?
What would you call them?
so sad ! My condolences to the families.....kids trying to have fun and somehow killed by adult error .
inexcusable and unforgivable..!!