Drowned infant identified
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Baby drowns near Sitka
SITKA - Officials have released the name of a baby who drowned in a Sitka boating accident Tuesday.
Three-month-old Jordan Porter was one of five people in a boat that overturned on a day trip to check crab pots. The others in the boat were Jeremiah and Lisa Porter, 27 and 22, and their sons, Nathan, 4, and Timothy, 3.
Jordan was still strapped in a car seat when rescue divers found him. The car seat and baby tumbled from the boat when it capsized in choppy waters around noon near a boat launch. Doctors at Sitka Community Hospital worked unsuccessfully for two hours to save the baby, according to the Sitka Sentinel.
The other family members were in stable condition at Sitka Community Hospital, said Jeannette Cowyer, chief nursing officer.
Cpl. James Helgoe, an investigator with the Alaska State Troopers, said workers from a nearby log barge went to the scene in a tugboat and began pulling family members aboard.
Realizing that the baby was missing, one man on the tugboat dove into the water to search for him, making repeated attempts to go under the overturned boat. Meanwhile, the father used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive one of his boys. After the tug left, the crew of a civilian boat continued the search for the baby. Men using a boat hook lay on top of the overturned skiff and tried to clear debris and hook the baby's car seat. Moments after the rescue divers arrived, they surfaced with the baby.