By Stephanie Tracy
Independent-Mail
September 20, 2004

EASLEY — Police and emergency management officials planned to send divers into the swollen Saluda River Tuesday morning to continue the search for a 55-year-old Easley man feared drowned during the weekend.

Search teams spent the morning Monday patrolling the river with boats from where the man was last seen off of S.C. 124 to the S.C. 81 bridge.

Boat searches of the river Sunday and Monday failed to find any sign of the man.

Pickens County Emergency Management Director Don Evett said divers were tentatively scheduled to begin searching the river about 10 a.m. Tuesday.

"The water’s improving," Mr. Evett said. "We’ve made some notations of where we want to look with the divers."

The man — whose name has not been released — was last seen fishing Saturday on the banks of the river that forms a boundary between Greenville and Pickens counties. Mr. Evett said investigators found the man’s wallet, shoes, socks and lawn chair along the banks, but found no evidence that the man left the shore.

"No one saw him go into the water," Mr. Evett said. "Apparently he told someone he thought he could swim to Piedmont."

Stephanie Tracy can be reached at (800) 859-6397, Ext. 342 or by e-mail at tracysk@IndependentMail.com.