After sisters, 2 and 4, drowned in a Long Island pond, neighbors struggle to understand how it happened
HOLTSVILLE, N.Y. -- A Long Island community is mourning two small children who drowned in a pond after wandering from their home.
Neighbors desperately looked for 4-year-old Ruth Evangeline Gali and her 2-year-old sister Selah Grace Gali before they were found unresponsive in the pond in Holtsville, Suffolk County.
A frantic search led to the startling discovery
On Saturday, the girls somehow got out of their upstairs unit at Fairfield Townhouses and wandered to the pond -- the community's picturesque centerpiece.
Neighbors described the heart-wrenching scene amid the distraught family's efforts to call 911 and enlist help from those on the block once they realized the girls got outside.
"The mother was frantic looking for them, and the whole neighborhood came out. We were all looking for them," said Marge Baldi, a neighbor. "How do these things happen? That's why they're called tragic accidents. They have a gate, they have all the safety precautions. I've never seen the children left unattended."
"It's unimaginable"
Good Samaritans made the unthinkable discovery in the pond moments later.
The girls could not be saved by responding police, who have not said how they believe the children were able to get out of the apartment.
"That's possible, one fell in the other tried to help. It's unimaginable," Baldi said.
Sections of the pond are fenced, but others with a more natural habitat are not. Signage tells people to keep out of the water, stating, "No swimming or diving permitted in this area."
"Everyone is just really in shock, honestly, because this is a beautiful place to live. A lot of us chose to live here because of the lake and everything, and the water, so it just sheds a different light on it," said Alyssa Knott, another neighbor.
The family's church set up a fundraiser, which states the girls' father is stuck in India due to visa issues and they're working on getting him to New York for his daughters' funerals.
CBS News New York reached out to Fairfield Properties for comment and has not heard back.