Members of the Cowlitz County Dive Team recovered the body of a 22-year-old Longview man who drowned in the Columbia River while swimming off Willow Grove County Park late Tuesday morning.

The man, whose name was withheld pending notification of his family, was recovered just after noon 30 to 40 yards offshore in the area he had gone missing an hour earlier, according to Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Capt. Mark Nelson.

Nelson said the man had been swimming with his cousin in the area of a “no wake” buoy. The cousin, also in his 20s, swam ashore, and witnesses said they saw the other man get carried off in the current and then go under, Nelson said.

The man is the sixth local drowning victim this summer and the fourth to die in local rivers. County officials have repeatedly warned people not to swim in the Columbia River off Willow Grove Beach because of treacherous currents and wakes from passing ships.

The men were not wearing life jackets, and the kiosk where the county dispenses free loaner life jackets was empty, witnesses said.

A sheriff’s chaplain was trying to comfort the cousin, who had been in the river with the drowning victim but had managed to reach shore, exhausted and hyperventilating.

Two Coast Guard helicopters had joined the search after the initial 911 call came in at 11 a.m.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story reported an incorrect age for the deceased man.

For more on this story, check tdn.com for updates and see Wednesday’s print edition of The Daily News.