Preventative maintenance: asking questions.

By Curt Brown, Anthony Lonetree and Chris Havens
Star Tribune

State investigators began weighing Friday how much a Hugo company's actions contributed to the apparent drowning of two workers during a sudden downpour that left them trapped in the labyrinth of storm sewers deep below St. Paul's streets.

City Council members called for a review of the city's sewer safety procedures to see what can be learned from the death of Dave Yasis, 23, of Maplewood, and the apparent death of Joe Harlow, 34, of Plainview, Minn.

"St. Paul is not the only city in America that has sewers," Council President Kathy Lantry said. "There is a nationwide lesson to be learned from our tragedy."

Ramsey County sheriff's deputies found the body of Yasis about 6 p.m. Friday near where the storm sewers spill into the Mississippi River, Cmdr. Joe Paget said. The sheriff's water patrol resumed searching for Harlow about 7 a.m. today.
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Fast-rising, thigh-high, pressurized rainwater began filling the tunnel about 3:30 p.m., according to Kraft and St. Paul Public Works officials. Two workers were hoisted up a 100-foot shaft at Avon and Edmund, but rushing water prompted six others to head more than two blocks north in the tunnel to an exit near Victoria Street, Public Works spokeswoman Natalie Fedie said.

Four of those six men climbed more than 15 stories up a ladder escape, then noticed two of their co-workers were missing. Fedie said the workers, identified by relatives as Yasis and Harlow, were the last in the line of six.