Three bodies recovered, one body missing after multiple river drownings

KERN COUNTY, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - The Fourth of July holiday was a deadly one on the Kern River in California.

According to Kern County Search and Rescue, there have been multiple recent apparent river drownings, with three bodies recovered and one still missing.

The drownings continued at the Kern River as we come out of a Fouth of July holiday with another half-dozen on the dangerous river.

Not all of the recent suspected drownings are accounted for, but in the past few days has been deadly, with an unidentified two-year-old child reportedly having drowned in a residential pool Sunday night, and one tragedy after another on the river.

No names have been released, but NBC Los Angeles has reported that a Canoga Park man is feared to have drowned trying to save a woman who jumped or fell in the river and was lost to the fast moving water herself.

How do you protect yourself? There's really only one effective way, according to Courtney Sorenson, a Bakersfield native, who has been visiting the Kern River all her life with extreme caution.

"If it's still, standing water, and there's rocks on there and you can just sit down, that's okay. Don't go out there to where the water's flowing, though, [because] it will pull you under quick," Sorenson reasoned.

There are several better options, she said.

"I would just advise not to. If you don't know how to swim well, if you're a city baby, you don't know how to swim well, just stay out of the river. Be very careful. I mean, there's Lake Ming, there's Lake Buena Vista, there's other standing water places, even right here. There are safer places to swim."

Courtney Sorenson, Bakersfield resident

This kind of heat kills, and not just in the traditional sense. It drives people to water and the Kern River is a favorite for many from outside Kern County.

One woman from Sinaloa, Mexico, Rosita Rivas, was visiting family in Bakersfield and relaxing at the Kern River for the first time. Her nephews, ages five and six, were frolicking in the water, under supervision, close to the shore. She hadn't heard about all of the recent drownings in the Kern River.

"In this one? Oh my God. That's why you're doing this? I didn't know. Thank you. Oh, no, we need to be careful. I didn't know that," Rivas expressed.