UPDATED: Search Continues For Body Reported Floating in Uvas Creek

Investigators are continuing their search after reports that a person was floating motionless in the frigid waters of Uvas creek near the Thousand Trails campground Thursday night, according to Sgt. Rick Sung, spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

Several people had gathered at the campground to watch the spectacle of a flooded bridge, observing “what appeared to be a person” floating in the beam of their headlights around 8:50 p.m., said Dave McLean, a Cal Fire battalion chief.

 “It wasn’t 100 percent certain that it was a body, but we treated it like it was,” said McLean.

Six agencies participated in the joint-rescue operation: the Gilroy Fire Department, South Santa Clara County Fire Department, county fire, the Sheriff’s office and the California Highway Patrol.

Despite hours of searching, including a Sheriff’s helicopter equipped with heat-sensitive camera equipment, responders did not find the person reported to be in the 45-degree water and called off the search around 11 p.m., said Richard Salazar, Santa Clara County Fire Department battalion chief.

There are no people reported missing at this time, Sgt. Sung said.

Gilroy firefighters had positioned themselves down stream from the campground on Hecker Pass, using air from their respirators to inflate a section of fire hose and positioning it so they could quickly throw it into Uvas creek as a huge flotation device, the firefighters said.

Heavy rains throughout the day caused water to surge through Uvas creek, even rising enough to