A search, frequently interrupted by stormy weather, resulted at midmorning in the removal of a body from the Mississippi River believed to be a Hancock County man who fell into the river from a workboat Saturday evening, said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace.

Pace said positive identification of the body was pending, but based on clothing and other information, he had no reason to believe it was not the employee last seen on the deck of the John G. Morgan moored near Delta Point.

The body, first spotted by the crew of The Kansas City, a commercial vessel owned by WMS Marine of Greenville, was 4.5. miles south of LeTourneau Landing on the Louisiana side of the river. That’s about nine river miles from where the victim is believed to have fallen into the current and drowned.

“We had both of our boats on the river first thing this morning, but we’ve had to pull them out due to the weather,” Pace said. “It’s just not safe with the size of the boats we have to be on the river in these conditions,” the sheriff said around 8 a.m.

That changed when the tow radioed and reported the sighting. Crews immediately began searching the area.

Ergon Marine and sheriff’s department crews first responded to the call just before 8 p.m. Saturday. The man had gone into the river about 1 mile north of the river bridges in an inlet area on the western bank of the river where the Morgan had been tied off for the evening. The Morgan is owned by Houma, La.-based Bayou Tugs and contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mat Sinking Unit, said Pace.

The Vicksburg Fire Department dive team aided in the search Sunday, as did both the Mississippi and Louisiana departments of wildlife and fisheries.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com