SALEM, Ore. — Editor's Note: Tracy Allen's body was found Sept. 3.
The recovery operation for a Vancouver woman who went missing Saturday while floating with friends on the Willamette River south of Salem has been suspended until further notice, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.
The float tube carrying Tracy Allen, 37, and friends flipped over after running into the root ball of a tree on Saturday afternoon. She hasn't been seen since she went into the water.
Search crews from the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Marion County Sheriff's Office, Benton County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Coast Guard looked for Allen Saturday and Sunday.
"After deploying every possible resource available without success, [Polk County] Sheriff Mark Garton made the decision to change the focus of the operation to that of recovery," the sheriff's office said in a release late Sunday afternoon.
Divers from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office water rescue team were deployed to the area where Allen was last seen. But shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, the recovery operation was suspended because it was too dangerous for divers.
"The current at the location was estimated to be ... just over 13 feet per second, fast enough to stress the tethers [divers] were using. Maybe even more concerning was the debris from trees and roots littering the area. ... The debris was impossible to safely negotiate without putting divers in jeopardy," the sheriff's office said in a release.
Allen's family was notified that the operation was being suspended.
"While understandably saddened by the news, [the family] understood the reasoning behind [the] decision," the sheriff's office said in a release.
The sheriff's office said it will consider other possible recovery options over the coming days.
Allen was wearing a life jacket and authorities said she knew how to swim. But the sheriff's office said the combination of a strong current and a large field of debris in the water, made up of trees and roots, would have been substantial enough to hold her underwater.
"Water does some strange things. It's very powerful," said Polk County Sheriff's Lt. Dustin Newman. "She was wearing a life jacket. Obviously, that's not 100%, just the same as seatbelts."
Allen's friends who were on the tube with her were able to get to shallow water and scramble to shore on Wells Island. Two other women floating behind the trio unhooked their tubes before reaching the snag and made their way ashore.
Officials are using an overhead drone, side-scan sonar, underwater camera and a helicopter for the search.