Search, no rescue on Mill River

The sight of an overturned green canoe floating on Mill River on Sunday morning prompted a two-hour-long search for a possible missing boater.

Members of Rockville Centre’s fire and police departments braved wind gusts of up to 40 mph as they scoured the river by boat along the Rockville Centre-Oceanside-East Rockaway border, while an infrared camera mounted on an extended fire truck ladder simultaneously scanned the frigid, murky water. The local searchers were joined by an aviation unit in a Nassau County Police Department helicopter.

According to a village Police Department spokesman, searchers eventually determined that no one had been in the capsized canoe, and that it had come loose from its mooring during the intense rain and wind storm that swept through the area on Saturday night. On Monday, the owners of the canoe, residents of River Avenue in East Rockaway, contacted Rockville Centre police and were reunited with their wayward craft.