The search for two duck hunters reported missing Dec. 3 continues as authorities scour the Mississippi River in hopes of finding the young men.

“We have found nothing,” Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said Sunday. “We are continuing to search the same area, from just north of LeTourneau (landing) to Middle Ground Island (in Claiborne County).”

Deputies with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office and agents with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks have searched the Mississippi River since late on Dec. 3 when Zeb Hughes, 21, from Wesson, and 16-year-old Gunner Palmer of Brookhaven did not return from a planned hunting trip and were reported missing by their families.

Pace said the search has been hampered by two issues, a mechanical problem with one of the sheriff’s office’s boats, reducing the number of boats he has available to one, and a rise in the Mississippi River, which pulled in debris and logs from the riverbank as the river spread inland.

“All the debris in the river makes it hard to search, and we have to be back in by dark,” he said. “Before, we came back in the dark using lights, but it’s too dark to see the logs and debris, so out of safety we’re coming in at dark.”