URBANA - A steep-sided gorge filled rapidly with floodwaters during a rainstorm, overwhelming a young couple who liked to go swimming in the pools beneath a network of waterfalls, authorities said Friday.

Youngsters often defy the “No Trespassing” signs to go swimming in Glen Brook on hot days.

Nathan Benner and his girlfriend, Michelle Ayers, both 22, were apparently overtaken by a torrent of water that filled up the ravine within a short time on Thursday afternoon, Sheriff Richard Twedell said.

“It's a very deep gorge with very steep shale sides,” the Steuben County sheriff said. “We're assuming they were swimming in one of the pools up there. We're really not sure what happened. All this water came down and maybe overwhelmed one of them and the other one tried to help.”

Two youths spotted the partially submerged bodies a short time later at the foot of the gorge, which runs into the southern end of Keuka Lake in this town 55 miles south of Rochester.

Investigators said there was no evidence of foul play, but autopsies were being conducted to determine whether the couple drowned “or if they were injured first,” Twedell said. They were dressed in swimming attire and their shoes and sandals were recovered about 400 feet above where their bodies were found.

Severe thunderstorms in the Finger Lakes region Thursday caused flash flooding that washed out or heavily eroded several roadways in and around the nearby villages of Bath and Hammondsport.

The gorge drops down a few hundreds feet over a short distance and has pools beneath two sets of waterfalls.

“When you get real heavy rains, the water will come down through there in large amounts and fill the entire cavity wall to wall and you've got no place to go,” Town of Urbana Supervisor Richard Gardner said. “You can't get up out of it because it's sheer wall and you get trapped.

“It's very cool water so kids go up there and swim, even though it's posted,” he said. “It doesn't surprise me they went up there to swim - it was a very nice day. The rain ... only lasted for 20 minutes to half an hour but it (came down) very, very hard.”

Benner, who lived in Avoca, had picked up Ayers at her home in Bath about two hours before they were killed, the sheriff

said.

“I believe he was a student and she worked locally at a store,” he said. “Apparently, they frequented this place. Young people have been going up there for years. It's absolutely not a place to be when the water was like it was (Thursday).”