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Canoeist stranded by high water
By Mel Krug
After
finishing dinner and sitting down to spend a
quiet evening home with the family for a change,
wouldnt you know it, the pager went off.
Call Al, learn of a stranded canoeist in the San
Jacinto River, grab the gear and roll.
When I arrived
RMRU members Walt and Kevin Walker were already
there, along with numerous CDF and ambulance
personnel. Earlier in the evening the CDF had
tried to wade out to the stranded person but
turned back due to the strong current from recent
rain storms. Apparently after RMRU was activated
it had been decided to call for an El Toro Marine
helicopter, at that point as more RMRU members
arrived we just stood by.
After waiting
nearly a hour with no arrival of a helicopter,
and the fact that the subject was not talking as
much as earlier, we decided to do something
because of the fear that hypothermia would become
a factor. A person was needed to wade out with a
rope belay from up stream and one from the side.
Being a whitewater rafter I guess I fit the bill.
With the ropes
secured, I started out. The first two-thirds was
no problem as the cold and muddy water was only
waist deep, and not moving swiftly. Upon reaching
a large clump of reeds, I found the water on the
other side to be much deeper and quite swift.
Making some what of a lunging motion, aided by
the ropes I made it to the tree that the subject
was hanging onto. After securing the subject into
a sit harness and then hooking him up to me, I
started to shout instructions across to the
members on the bank, when just in time to make
things difficult, the Marine helicopter arrived.
For some reason they descended right over us
making it impossible to communicate with the
group. Everyone on the bank gave the wave off to
the pilot, who finally saw them and complied.
With the bird out of the way we started out. The
fast current immediately pulled us down stream,
but with the aid of the RMRU members on the bank,
we were quickly pulled up to the shore.
And to make
things short, the subject was transported to the
local hospital to be checked out, I got into some
dry clothes we were all commended for our quick
and positive action (which was a nice thing to
hear), and then headed home to get some sleep
before training the following day.
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