Nearly 100 volunteers, rescue personnel join desperate search for missing Long Island Democrat

Nearly 100 volunteers and rescue personnel showed up on Long Island Saturday to continue the frantic search for a missing political candidate who inexplicably vanished last month. 

Splitting off into pairs, the volunteers set out at 7 a.m. to canvas and comb through Long Beach, where Petros Krommidas, 29, was last seen on April 23 when he went for a training swim, cops and family said. 

Soon after he went missing, police found the Krommidas’ locked car by the Allegria Hotel, just near the beach he had regularly visited to train for a triathlon, his family added.

Krommidas – a Democrat who is running for a seat on the Nassau County Board of Legislators – reportedly appeared to have taken a towel with him on the day he disappeared. 

“We’re sending people out with flyers, we’re going to go and canvas the area between Atlantic Beach and Lido Beach and Point Lookout,” Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman told reporters from the beach’s parking lot Saturday afternoon. 

The efforts included ATVs, drones and helicopters, and members of the Marine Bureau in boats, according to Blakeman, who ordered the mobilization of Nassau’s Community Emergency Response Team Thursday. 

“Every effort will be made,” he said. 

Blakeman said Krommidas’s parents – who were part of the search efforts Saturday, but didn’t speak publicly – requested the “major effort” from county leadership.

“Because they became very concerned as time went by, they knew people would forget … or that – God forbid, if there was a tragedy – that somebody would miss the body,” he explained. 

“We want to try and locate the body if it was something that ended in a death,” Blakeman continued. 

Search leaders were heard telling volunteers to stay hydrated and wear sunscreen in the sunny weather. 

“Don’t underestimate talking to people that are walking along the beach,” one advised. 

“We’re going to keep doing this as long as we can,” another said. 

If anyone has information related to Krommidas’ disappearance, they’re asked to call the Nassau County Police Missing Persons Squad at 516-573-7717.