Authorities fight rain in hunt for UA student

Ryan A. Mihalyi Arizona Daily Wildcat Pima County Search and Rescue members Ed Sherlock (left) and Richard Kunz overlook the pool of water at the base of the 80-foot waterfall at Tanque Verde Falls yesterday. The search for missing UA economics senior Anton Bakker, who went over the falls Sunday, was postponed until today due to the heavy rain.

The search for a UA student presumed dead after he fell down an 80-foot waterfall Sunday was called off yesterday afternoon due to bad weather but is expected to resume again at 8 a.m. today, sheriff's officials said.

Economics senior Anton Bakker, 22, who jumped into a stream at Redington Pass' Tanque Verde Falls Sunday afternoon to rescue a friend's dog, went over two smaller falls before dropping 80 feet into a pool.

The search was called off at 2 p.m. yesterday because heavy rain limited visibility and could have endangered the 20 rescuers' safety, said Sgt. Brad Foust, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokesman. Foust said he expects Bakker did not survive the impact of the water at the pool below the fall. The heavy undertow also has a tendency to force objects under submerged crevices, he said.

The running water also sent debris into the pool, preventing rescuers to enter the water themselves, Foust said.

"If we could put divers in there (the drop pool), we would have found him already," he said.

More than 30 people have died at the falls, about 13 miles northeast of the University of Arizona campus, since the 1950s, Foust said.