By:Jeff Lipton
Tony DeLuca anxiously stood watch Monday morning under the Atlantic Beach Bridge, a pair of binoculars dangling from his neck.
The chief of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department was hoping for any glimpse of life in the treacherous waters in front of him after two sisters were reported missing when a strong current off Rockaway Beach dragged them down.
A cousin of the girls had already been pronounced dead and firefighters were scouring the waters under the bridge in a frantic search for the sisters, who were believed to have been swept toward Lawrence, officials said.
"It doesn't look good," DeLuca said as he peered through binoculars. "It's a very strong current that runs along here."
The missing girls' cousin had been pulled from the rough surf at Beach 13th Street in Far Rockaway by a rescuer and rushed to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, South Shore, where she was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m., according to hospital spokesperson Janet Talcott. "They were performing life-saving resuscitation on her as she was brought in at 9:55," Talcott said.
The dead girl was identified as Rahela Begum, 13, of Paterson, N.J., police said.
The girls, all from Paterson, were spending their summer with an uncle in Elmont, officials said.
Rescuers were still combing the waters Tuesday for the bodies of Jubeda Ahmed, 16, and her sister, Shajeda, 12, who were presumed dead. The search was being concentrated at Beach 2nd Street in Lawrence, directly under the bridge.
"Anything that goes in that way [in Far Rockaway], migrates this way [toward Lawrence]," DeLuca had said Monday. "It's quite deep and quite treacherous water, I'd say. There were divers in the water on the Atlantic Beach side, but there was no sign of them," he said of the girls.
The incident began at about 9:20 a.m. July 23 at Far Rockaway Beach, at Beach 19th Street and Seagirt Boulevard, before lifeguards came on duty, NYC police said. The girls were swimming when they suddenly disappeared under the water, a police spokesperson said.
The girls' uncle Mohammed Fahrul Islam of Elmont reportedly took eight children from his extended family for a day at the beach. The family has its roots in Bangladesh.
As Islam was preparing his fishing rods at the public beach, the strong current pulled the girls farther out in the water, into the middle of the East Rockaway Inlet, officials said.
Fire officials set up a command post under the bridge on the Lawrence side, and as some rescuers went out in small lifeboats, others stood watch on the waterfront peering through binoculars, hoping to see any sign of life.
"We have 10 to 12 vessels in the water involved in the search," DeLuca said. He also said the water is about 100 feet deep, giving an experienced swimmer difficulty in navigating it.
Combining rescue efforts were Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department, Inwood Fire Department, Long Beach Fire Department, New York City police and fire departments, Coast Guard, Bay Constable and Nassau County and New York City aviation units.
"It's getting late in the operation and it's starting to look doubtful," Anthony Rivelli, an ex-chief of the Inwood Fire Department said shortly after coming ashore at 11:15 a.m. "We were out there just hoping to see bubbles or anything.
"We were looking for somebody, anybody, to yank out of the water. The current is going pretty fast. Even after you shut off your motor, you can still take off."
At about 8 p.m. Monday, as darkness started to settle in and after combing the waters for 10 hours, rescuers called off the search. They resumed looking for the bodies Tuesday morning.
