Search for boy swept into creek to resume Sunday morning

Search crews left Gypsum Creek shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday after looking for almost 14 hours that day for an 11-year-old boy who was swept away by high waters Friday evening.

Scott Brown, battalion chief of the Wichita Fire Department, said crews would resume the search Sunday at 7 a.m.

The 11-year-old boy disappeared shortly before 7:30 p.m. Friday when he was trying to cross the creek with three friends but was swept away by currents from heavy rainfall. Rescuers searched from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Friday and then midnight to 1 a.m. Saturday.

Much of Saturday’s search, which started at 7 a.m., focused on a roughly one-mile stretch of the creek from where the boy entered the water to I-135.

Brown said searchers would expand their efforts into the Arkansas River on Sunday. He added that if the boy traveled down the creek to I-135, he likely went into the Arkansas River, because that area didn’t have much debris to stop him.

Water was flowing at 8 to 12 mph on Friday evening, when the boy went missing, but the creek had slowed and subsided by Saturday. However, rain is in the forecast for Sunday and much of the coming week, which could complicate the search.

This story was originally published May 28, 2016 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Search for boy swept into creek to resume Sunday morning."