NEIGHBORHOOD TRAGEDY TODDLER DIES AFTER POOL INCIDENT.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A 2-year-old girl died and her 4-year-old sister was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday after they were pulled unconscious from a swimming pool at a vacant house where they had wandered from their backyard next door.

The sisters got through a broken gate into the neighboring yard and took off their clothes before climbing into the pool, where a great-aunt found them minutes later floating face-down, relatives said.

``I went out front looking for them. It was just five minutes,'' said the great-aunt, Elizabeth Taylor. The girls were identified by relatives as Noriah Hendricks, 4, and Natavia Hendricks, 2.

The older girl was flown by helicopter to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, while the younger was taken by ambulance to Antelope Valley Hospital, with an escort of sheriff's patrol cars blocking off side streets as the ambulance raced by.

The 2-year-old was later pronounced dead, coroner officials said. The older girl was breathing upon arrival at the hospital but was still considered in critical condition, fire officials said.

The girls' mother was at work at an AM-PM market when the accident happened. Called by relatives, she arrived home as her daughters were already on the way to the hospital. She fainted on the sidewalk and paramedics were called back to treat her. The little girls had been playing Wednesday afternoon with a 2-year-old cousin in their backyard in the 36700 block of 45th Street East when they disappeared, Taylor said. When she went into the front yard looking for them, she looked through the backyard gate of the neighboring house, which has a ``For Sale'' sign in the front yard. Taylor saw the little cousin standing in the backyard, then saw the girls in the pool floating face-down.

``They got through somehow and they jumped in,'' said Taylor's niece, Brittany Townsend, who helped pull the girls from the water.

Taylor, who can't swim, screamed for help and pulled the girl closest to the side out of the water. Hearing Taylor's screams, Townsend ran next door and jumped into the pool to pull out the other girl.

They carried the children to the front yard and were performing CPR when firefighters arrived.

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(color -- ran in AV edition only) A sheriff's deputy Wednesday afternoon walks across the lawn of a vacant house on 45th Street East where two little neighbor girls were pulled unconscious from a swimming pool. The girls lived next door and got through a broken gate.

Charles F. Bostwick/Daily News