Search continues for missing boater after tug collision

One man was killed and authorities are searching for a second man after a small boat collided with a tug towing barges late Monday on Bayou Sorrel in Iberville Parish, according to Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi.

The search resumed for the missing man at 7 a.m. The Sheriff's Office, the Coast Guard, Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries and Iberville residents took part in the search.

Four men were in the small boat sometime before 10 p.m. Monday when it collided with the tug and the empty barges it was towing.

The small boat capsized. Two men reached the bank and were able to telephone for help.

The body was recovered about 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, before the search was suspended for the night. Stassi said a life jacket was recovered miles from the scene.

The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which had recently been reopened after a barge sank near Berwick on Feb. 2, was closed between the Bayou Sorrel Lock and the Grosse Tete Bridge. The lock is about 20 miles south of Baton Rouge.

The search was focusing Tuesday morning on a quarter-mile stretch of waterway but may have to be expanded, Stassi said.