A pair of paddlers are safe and sound after running into trouble on the high waters of Quesnel River Monday night (July 13).
Members of the Quesnel RCMP and Quesnel Search and Rescue responded to the call for help in the early evening after a person in a kayak and another in a canoe were overwhelmed and capsized by the river shortly after launching.
“Fortunately the separated subjects managed to survive the currents and landed on the river bank. Their water crafts and life jackets were lost in the river,” noted Quesnel Search and Rescue on their Facebook post about the rescue.
One of the victims had managed to find their way from the river shore to a residence and made a call to police, while the second victim was isolated on the other side of the river.
Quesnel Search and Rescue members employed the use on jet boats and a helicopter as part of the rescue operation and 15 volunteer members, providing logistics, management, communications and swift-water expertise.
“The two river boats carrying SAR members reached and assessed the subject who was found to be not seriously injured from the incident and was transported to the launch point where they were reunited with the other travelling partner,” stated Quesnel SAR.
“QSAR would like to give a very big thank you to the professional assistance of Ted at Highland Helicopter, and professional river boat operators Shane McCann and Doug Mooring. Our volunteers are always in good hands when we have these fine people getting our volunteers to where they need to be.”
Quesnel SAR would like to advise all adventurers to not go into a situation that you are not prepared for.
“All rivers in this part of British Columbia are at a very high level and along with the massive volumes of water, there are dangerous amounts of submerged floating debris flowing down rivers and streams. Please stay out of these waterways until water levels have dropped to a safe level. Check with the River Forecast Centre before going into any river.”
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