If I were a betting man, I would bet money that the group involved in this fiasco was young, and were drinking.
I’d be surprised if those who aren’t accounted for also drowned in the hydraulic, and their bodies caught in debris at the bottom of the hydraulic, or downstream.
There will be a lot of greiving family members, who will suffer needlessly, because of poor decision making on the part of the participants in the fiasco.
Sad to say the least.
BOB
The fox story makes it appear they didn’t know what they were doing and what they were in for. I wonder if there was any signage where they put in? I did another thread about a nice level I-II river in wisconsin. But if you look at a satellite view, the river goes around an island, with dams on both sides. On the left side, looks like there’s a string of bouys put out crossing the river, so there must be a LHD with a chute for some generation there.
On the right side, where you’re supposed to take out, there’s a big LHD all the way across where there’s a fast bypass right after the takout at the park.
If you just put in above with the idea of floating down the lazy river, not knowing about the LHDs in your path–and there were no sineage warning you of them and their dangers…you’d be in trouble. If you did it in tubes you’d really really be in trouble. OK, dead.
A number of the news articles mention that there were signs above the dam. Either the family didn’t see them, ignored them, or thought that it would be fun going over a dam that was only 8’ high with deep water on the other side.
I suspect that the vast majority of people do not know of the unique danger of low head dams. It’s not obvious by looking at them in most cases.
Most dams have warning signs. Always be on the look out for a straight horizon line indicating a drop. a ledge or a dam.
The smart thing to do is drive up stream along your route during the shuttle to look for obvious impediments to boats like low head dams. Read a guide book. If you get surprised by a dam like this you have really screwed up.
Normally there is a powerhouse, or other irrigation diversions nearby which is your other warning of a dam ahead. This one should be obvious from way upstream.
I have not seen this dam in person. There was a post shared on the Carolina Canoe Club’s FB page that talked about it and included a couple of photos taken upstream of the dam. Many such dams have a cable strung above the river with a large danger sign in red lettering. This one apparently does not have nor is there a float line on the water upstream of the dam. There are a couple of relatively small signs marking the portage around the dam that is a short distance upstream of it as shown below.
This is what the dam looks like from the water a short distance upstream:
I wrote a subject here where if someone did their research and didn’t go through the articles all the way down, they’d see it’s a class I-II section of the wisconsin river. There are 2 dams there and the one on the left is smaller, has a building on it so I’m sure signs of warning…and that cable with bouys across the river there. That’s on the left. On the right is where there’s a take-out where this section ends. From satellite view, there’s no cable bouys across the river. It looks treed on the banks also. The take-out is at the far right side, by a LHD.
If you don’t make it to the take-out, here’s where you’re going:
I had no idea of the dangers of these dams until a video popped up in my recommendations on youtube last year when looking up paddling info
Me either Mike. I bet people can canoe/kayak for decades and not encounter a LHD.
It would be great for kayak/canoe/tube manufacturers to include a piece of paper warning of low head dams, or stick a sticker on them/the box somewhere so at least it’d give a heads up to people so they can look into what they are.
They would get thrown away. Just like the safety pamphlet that comes with a gun
True, but you spelled “safety locks” wrong.
There has to be a use for those things other than throwing them away.
I sadly write this and loss of life is catastrophic always.
I grew up in and age where my father would tell me to do my “Due Diligence” and then offer me his knowledge and wisdom on whatever I was about to undertake and lastly tell me he wouldn’t be around forever and it was important I think ahead on my own.
For some reason and I hope it is just me getting old and it really isn’t happening, but I feel each generation is losing self reliance and expecting the world to totally guide them along safely. Cars hit the brake for you and soon will drive you. Everything you put in your mouth has been tested and prepared in advance. There is becoming a lesser and lesser degree of self-awareness IMO.
In an attempt to make everything without risk in some ways people are unaware of risk. Nowhere is it as apparent as watercrafts. Any kid with 5 minutes of training can run a jet ski it seems. I had a family member that bought a very powerful jet ski and she asked me who should be allowed to ride it? I told her first rule if it were mine would be read the book that came with it. Second rule is wearing a PFD. Third rule is go out into the cove behind her dock and jump off it and show her you can get back on. To her and their surprise a couple of her grown kids couldn’t get back on it.
This is a tragedy but the worst kind I can think of. One that was 100% avoidable.
A local river called the Gunpowder in MD is a favorite tubing spot. When we have flash flooding, a lot of debris gets carried into the river, like grills, metal drums . . . Tubers use the waterways with blind faith. I’m sure they don’t see any danger, because 10s or 100s of thousands have used it to escape the summer heat. My view is you would have to be a fool to float that river, because the banks constantly shift slightly and that could expose sharp rusty hazards.
The limited number of injuries proves I’m overreacting, but that doesn’t mean wrong. I repeat: we have a rightbto offer an opinion. But no right to expect anyone to ask for our consent. No example I can think of will change that, unless you show a statute, but people breaks laws all the time. Can’t do anything more than lock them up. I hope the water police don’t arrest me one day because. I’m too far from shore. You have one life, it’s up to you to make judgements about how that works. Look at the picture from the Fjord. I’m not going to tell them to get out of there. It’s what they do, and I’m darn certain they know the risks. I once went out in fog with 1/2 mile visibility. I’ll listen to recommendations for handling fog, but don’t expect me to reply about “What was I thinking!” Thinking? Greatest trip I ever took. If me own sweet mother said, don’t you go out there Jyak, I’d say we’ll talk about it when I get back. Can’t say no more. How do you find that duck pond?
“I” stay clear of low dams. Does anyone think they actually thought that was a water feature to be explored. By the way, the info about how to get out of that water trap is very much appreciated.
Escaping a low head dam that creates a strong hydraulic all the way across the stream bed is very difficult because there is no “side exit” that a swimmer can work their way to. The best chance of escape is probably if someone is on hand to throw you a rope and you are able to catch and hang on to it. But there have been many recorded instances in which the person getting recirculated was too disoriented to catch a rope or too weak to hang on to it. There is also the risk that a swimmer getting recirculated will get wrapped up in any excess rope. But it the swimmer can hang onto it, a rope potentially allows a rescuer to pull the swimmer out in a downstream direction.
If you are caught in a hydraulic with no safe side exit alone, the conventional “wisdom” was to try to go as deep as possible at the moment you are pushed under by the recirculation as the water exiting the hydraulic is usually at the very bottom of the stream bed. This is one instance in which a PFD can actually work against a swimmer if it prevents the swimmer from getting to the bottom of the channel. Another piece of frequently dispensed advise was to “make shapes” with your arms and legs. A circular object like a swimmer who “balls up” gets recirculated more easily than one with a more complex, elongated shape.
The majority of people who get trapped in a hydraulic created by a low head dam do so through ignorance thinking they can run them because they often look relatively innocent, or they simply don’t know that they are there.
Powerful powerful observation - due diligence . . . generation loosing self reliance . . . everything has a safety warning.
Is that crazy: no warning on tide pods telling everyone not to eat them, no warning on lemon scented dish detergent to not use it for lemonsaide (I couldn’t get past the creamy head to even taste it, but the bubbles burned my nose, huffing cinnamon does have hazards. But in small doses it must be a rush. Just ban big gulps and limit purchases to 16 oz and one per customer. Eliminate salt. Yet we invent reasons to keep border open for the illegal Fentenol trade and opiates from the other places. Save me. Wonder what a safe dose is for a habit forming narcotic. Never mind. I think I figured it out.
I saw a rescue video of emergency crew’s attempting to rescue power boat passengers. It was heart wrenching. Not so much for the victims as much as watching the rescuers get trapped.
I put errant behavior in perspective. Danger to self and danger to others. Danger to self is a personal decision and totally an individuals prerogative unless you have custodial relationship (for example: your child). If you perish through accident or gross negligence, it’s not my business. If the danger to rescuers is nothing more than recovering your body, you can take the risk. Put another at risk. You better think twice.
Very good, informed explanation of self rescue.
IN the UK they have weirs instead of low head dams on many rivers. Much better solution to level changes, and I wonder what the cost differential is. I got to encounter them on two of the rivers I paddled with the local canoe and kayak club during my visit to Yorkshire a few years ago. They are constructed with a notch on one side or the middle through which a boater can slip down the low angle ramp and easily shoot through the very low turbulence at the base. We did have to get out and remove a large tree branch that had gotten hung up in the notch at one but that was easy. On one of the outings I was in my folding kayak and knew the soft shell might drag or hang up on the concrete in the shallow chute, so I just pulled out ahead of the drop and portaged. But I was able to walk out along the base of the weir only a few feet from where it leveled out into the river and relaunch.
Some dams now have weirs or run outs for safe passage by boats. The S Platte R in Denver has some. Some day all low head dams will have them.
I have pulled people out the hydraulics at the base of low head dams with throw ropes a couple of times. People tend to get panicky when they realize they are in a perfect reversal. There is often wood debris in the hydraulic thumping them and their boat. Some people have quit the sport on the spot.
I found it interesting that virtually all the paddling club folks there in Yorkshire preferred solo or tandem canoes and whitewater/squirt boats. They had their own boat house and dock and of the dozens of craft I saw on the racks, there was not a single rec style kayak and only a handful of sea kayaks. even though the town was only about an hour’s drive to the North Sea coast.
Though we were launching that day shown below on the narrow, meandering and shallow River Rye, some of the paddlers chose to wear helmets because our takeout downstream was aat Howsham Mill, where the restoration project 5 years earlier had converted a 18th century grain mill to a hydroelectric generation station (a turbine in the diverted flow plus 2 Archimedes screws) and the design included creating a permanent whitewater course built into the millrace outflow so paddlers could play in it.
Video here showing the Howsham weir and how nice it is for paddlers.
I guess great if you know enough to use it.
The problem with attempting to swim along the bottom to get out of a low head dam hydraulic is, besides the PFD problem, the swimmer must remain oriented enough to know which way to swim and at the same time be able to swim underwater far enough to escape the strong surface flow back into the dam. There are multiple instances of boats going to rescue a swimmer being caught in the reverse flow only to be capsized at the dam resulting in multiple casualties.
