NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Although 100 lifeguards were present, a fully clothed man drowned at a party to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at a New Orleans city pool.

Jerome Moody, 31, was found on the bottom at the deep end of a New Orleans Recreation Department pool at the end of the party Tuesday, NORD Director Madlyn Richard said.

Moody was not a lifeguard and was a guest at the party. Ms. Richard said he had not been swimming and was fully dressed.

Four lifeguards were on duty at the party and more than half the 200 people there were certified lifeguards, she said.

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It was not known when Moody got in the water or how he drowned. The body was found as lifeguards began clearing the pool at the close of the party.

They pulled him out and tried to revive him until emergency medical attendants arrived. An autopsy confirmed that he had drowned.

″The lifeguards were really upset. It’s a real tragedy,″ Ms. Richard said. ″This was the first annual party in memory where they could celebrate a trouble-free season.

″We had all been talking about it. It was the first season without a single (drowning) incident.″

The lifeguard party is held each year at the end of July when most of the NORD swimming pools close. Officials began closing the pools then after noting in past years that attendance dropped off after Aug. 1.