Search efforts are underway after a vehicle belonging to the family of a missing East Windsor man was found in the Connecticut River in Massachusetts over the weekend.

Daniel Callahan, 26, of East Windsor, Connecticut, had gone to a party in Chicopee, Massachusetts on Saturday and was reported missing the next morning, according to police.

Hours after he was reported missing, a car registered to Callahan’s father was pulled from the Connecticut River in Chicopee, according to police.

The office of the Hampden County Sheriff in Massachusetts said an unoccupied black Toyota Camry registered to Callahan’s father was found near the end of Walter Street in Chicopee, Mass. on Sunday evening, and pulled from the river.

East Windsor police said Callahan was last seen leaving a party at home in Chicopee around 11:45 p.m. on Saturday and his family reported him missing on Sunday morning when they could not reach him.

Officers and detectives responded to Walter Street in Chicopee around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday and found evidence indicating a possible crash at the edge of the river, the Massachusetts State Police Dive Team responded and found the submerged car, which was removed from the river around 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office.

They said it is not yet known whether Callahan was driving the vehicle when it went into the river.

The Hampden County Sheriff’s Office said its Marine Patrol Unit is assisting the Chicopee Police Department, the Chicopee Fire Department and the Western Massachusetts Regional Dive Team in the search.

The Hamden County Sheriff’s Office said two sheriff’s office boats, one Chicopee Fire Department boat, two sheriff’s office drones, one Chicopee drone and 14 search and rescue personnel are searching the shore and the Springfield Fire Department is also searching its section of the river.

“After receiving several calls from the community, we activated our Marine Patrol Unit and Search and Rescue teams to utilize all available resources in the search for anyone who may have been inside the recovered vehicle,” Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi said in a statement.

“We are focusing on the area where the car was found, as well as locations downriver. The river is volatile at the moment, but we are committed to this effort because a distraught family is looking for their loved one,” the statement goes on to say.

Even before the official start of fire season, the region is grappling with dry conditions that are fueling brush fires and prompting water conservation measures across Massachusetts.

A brush fire in Lowell Monday followed a series of similar incidents in the Northeast, including a 400-acre blaze in Long Island over the weekend and another in Somers, Connecticut, on Sunday.

“The start of the fire season in the spring is coming sooner now and the end of the fire season in the fall is coming later now,” said Vandana Rao, director of water policy at Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Rao attributes this extended fire season to climate change, noting that dry conditions began as early as August and have rapidly worsened since.

“We got an unprecedented number of fires in the months of September and October compared to other times,” Rao said.

Extremely dry weather has left firefighters battling wildfires in recent weeks.

Currently, most of Massachusetts is experiencing a level three, or critical, drought. The Cape Cod National Seashore is planning to conduct a prescribed burn at Fort Hill this week, which will mitigate potential brush fires in the spring.

Local officials are also working to raise awareness about the ongoing drought and the need for water conservation in their cities and towns.

The conditions prompted the town of Topsfield to reinstate an outdoor water ban that’s been in effect since August. Well levels have hit an all-time low for this time of year.

“These are going to be the strictest restrictions we’ve ever had to impose,” Topsfield Water Superintendent Greg Krom said. “I think (people) are going to be surprised. We had a rainy, snowy winter. I think they’re going to be surprised that we’re still in a drought.”

Despite all the snow we’ve seen in recent weeks, Massachusetts continues to deal with an ongoing drought.

As temperatures rise, officials are urging residents to conserve water as much as possible.

“You know, people have plans to have ChemLawn come out and water the grass before and after,” Krom said. “Sorry, better off canceling it for now.”

Rao echoed that sentiment, stressing the importance of indoor water conservation.

“Any small steps that individuals can take, businesses can take right now, mostly indoor use to tide us over, because we don’t know how long this drought will last,” Rao said. “We don’t know if it will get worse.”

Experts warn that it will take more than a few rain showers to alleviate the 12-inch precipitation deficit across much of the state. The drought is expected to persist for the next few months.

BOSTON (WHDH) – As President Donald Trump continues his push to eliminate the Department of Education, Massachusetts educators are raising concerns — saying the department provides funding for low-income students and students with disabilities.

But, Education Secretary Linda McMahon says the current system isn’t working.

“It has sown incredible anxiety and angst around what the future will look like,” said Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler.

White House officials said they are preparing an executive order to direct McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the department.

However, Trump cannot eliminate the Department of Education on his own. Doing so would require Congressional approval, so Trump is expected to target programs within the department, moving them to other agencies or ending them completely.

Tutwiler said districts are concerned about how this will impact the $2 billion the state receives from the department.

“Superintendents are concerned about how they’ll be able to provide reading intervention, how they’ll be able to provide related services for students with disabilities,” he said. “I will tell you definitively that we don’t have the funds to backfill $2 billion in funding that we get from federal government.”

The Massachusetts Teachers Association hopes the state will provide additional funding if the department is eliminated.

“If there are cuts coming down, the state has to be willing to respond to protect our public schools and colleges,” said Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

The state says money from the department helps pay teachers’ salaries in low-income communities and supports assistive technology, special education paraprofessionals, and also transportation.

It also operates the Pell Grant program, which helps low- and middle-income students afford college.

McMahon says a review of the Department of Education’s programs is long overdue.

“Since the Department of Education was established in 1980, we’ve spent over a trillion dollars to see our scores continue to go down,” she said.

But, some education leaders say that fails to capture the full picture.

“Our public schools have performed remarkably well given that they also do not have the funds and the staffing that they need, so the notion that somehow you’ve stopped funding special education services, you’ve stopped funding supports for low-income students, and that somehow is going to make schools even better is of course patently ridiculous,” Page said.

Closing the department also leaves the future of higher education loans in question. Trump acknowledged that the more than $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt is delaying his efforts to shutter the agency.

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