[July 22, 2011] Yosemite's Vernal Fall victims from Modesto, Turlock, Manteca Tweet YOSEMITE, Jul 20, 2011 (The Modesto Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Three people, including one from Modesto and one from Turlock, are presumed dead after they were swept over Vernal Fall on Tuesday afternoon, Yosemite National Park officials confirmed this morning. Hormiz "Ninos" David, 22, of Modesto, Ninos Yacoub, 27, of Turlock and Ramina Badal, 21, of Manteca, came to the park for a day trip with family and friends, according to park spokeswoman Kari Cobb. Witnesses said the three were seen entering the water above the fall, approximately 25 feet from the edge, Cobb said. Witnesses said several people urged them to step back from the cold and fast-moving water above the 317-foot drop. "Other visitors were pleading with them to come out of the water," park spokesman Scott Gediman told The Fresno Bee. "One of them slipped, and there was a chain-reaction as the other two tried to save the person who slipped." Father Genard Lazar of Ceres' Church of the East, St. George Parish, was nearby, but did not see the three go in. He was with the group. "All I heard was screaming and I turned around and looked up and (David and Badal) were being taken by the water over the waterfall," he said. Jake Bibee, 28, who witnessed the incident, told The Associated Press that he was mortified when he reached the top of the Mist Trail and found members of the group on the river side of the barricade. "People come up here and they think it's Disneyland," he said. One man, he said, was posing near the waterfall with a screaming young girl in his arms while a teenage girl snapped photographs. "People became unglued on this guy," Bibee said. "They said, you know what man, get your ass back over here." As the man complied, another man and woman in the group crossed the barricade and made their way to a rock in the middle of the river to pose for photographs. "That's when the woman started to slip," Bibee said. "He reached for her and fell in. Then another one tried to help and she falls in the water. We literally watched them get swept over the edge of Vernal Falls." The couple on the rock hugged each other tightly as they disappeared over the edge. "It was brutal," Bibee said. "... Everyone was screaming. People were praying. "What I will take away with me forever is the look on that grown man's face as he was floating down that river knowing he was going to die and nobody could help them." Lazar and 12 members of the church youth group were all up there eating lunch and taking pictures when the accident occurred. "We were all crying and praying and someone called 911," he said. Yacoub's sister-in-law, Jennifer Yacoub, said she and the rest of his family have gathered at his home in to Turlock pray. She asked the public to help her family pray. "We are asking for the power of prayer," Jennifer Yacoub said. "That is all we know that is going to work." Of Nino Yacoub, she said: "He is the most wonderful, loving, giving, adorable guy ever and he is full of life." Lazar said the group got to Yosemite at about 10:30 a.m., and took about 90 minutes to get to the top of the waterfall. The remaining nine in the group, one as young as 9 years old, all went home. The father stayed, and was joined today at Yosemite family, friends and other churchmembers. Father Nenos Michael, who works primarily out of the San Francisco, said Ramina was a nursing student at the University of San Francisco, and Ninos Yacoub was a chemistry student at Cal State University, Stanislaus. There have been six water related deaths in Yosemite National Park this year, including this incident. Two hikers drowned in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on June 29, and a hiker slipped and fell into the Merced River on the Mist Trail on May 13. The area at the top of Vernal Fall is marked as dangerous, and the group had crossed a metal guardrail placed there to keep visitors away from the fast-moving water, Cobb said. The park is still seeing the effects of a huge winter snowpack and a cool spring and summer. The Merced River, which feeds Vernal Fall, is still running at spring conditions with significant water levels resulting in a swift, dangerous current. The hike up the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall is one of the most popular hikes in the park, with upwards of 1,500 people per day ascending the trail to the top of Vernal Fall. Visitors are urged to exercise extreme caution around all water in Yosemite National Park. Park rivers and streams have been running at higher than normal levels for this time of year, and will remain high for several weeks. The Mist Trail was closed following the incident to facilitate Search and Rescue Operations but is now open. To see more of The Modesto Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.modbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, The Modesto Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]