Help! Homer is drowning...

Yes, I had already tried neuroheart's idea. Unfortunately, I am stuck playing on my iPhone 3 for now; the screen is fairly small so it takes quite a bit of dexterity to hit him after the task box disappears. He only sticks around for about half a second. I did try many times, but no luck. It has also been over 24 hours since he went AWOL, so I don't think it will reset itself.

In the meantime, surprisingly, EA did contact me. After giving the requested info, the nice Southeast Asian gentleman informed me that he would "escalate this issue to a higher department." Too bad I can only hold my breath for about 1 min.