The drowning thread is timely as it comes after a trying (and tragic) weekend here in Pamlico County, North Carolina. Two children ages 3 and 9 stepped off a sandbar in front of their family on the Neuse River and were swept under by the current. The "rescue" effort soon turned into a recovery effort. A massive search was mounted to find the bodies. It included fire, rescue, coast guard, CG auxiliary, just about every acronym in law enforcement you can think of and the US Marine rescue helicopter from Cherry Point MCAS. The river is almost three nautical miles wide at the last seen location. As a volunteer involved in the effort I marveled at the resources that were used to try to locate and recover the bodies. The commonly overheard volunteer worker comment was "the family needs closure". The interesting thing was nobody questioned that the safety of the rescue workers ALWAYS came first. When a thunder storm threatened, the entire operation was suspended until it passed an hour later. ALL rescue workers on or near the water wore PFD's and nobody questioned the orders to wear them, whether they were on a boat or combing the shoreline. The family was incredibly supportive and appreciative of the effort. They repeatedly stated that while they desperately wanted their children recovered, they understood it may not be possible. People realize around here that these bodies of water don't always "give up their dead". It is a sad but very real fact. Second to the safety issue is the fact that 95% of the rescue workers are volunteers. The recovery effort lasted from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. That means that many workers were not at paying jobs. I think this is an often overlooked issue in recovery efforts that are dependent on volunteers. The grieving family overlooks the true cost of the effort that cannot be measured in "government funded" agency involvement. It may sound unnecessarily harsh but the girl in the Chatooga is dead. If it were an easy recovery that does not risk lives and carry an exceptional cost then do it. O-T-O-H it is tough to justify the risk of additional lives as well as expense for a difficult recovery. In our case the bodies were recovered. Side scan sonar located them only 20 yards from where they were last seen just before dark on Saturday July 10th. Divers recovered the 9 year old at that time. The smaller child's body eluded all efforts and was not sighted and recovered until Monday the 12th. It was found many miles away on the opposite side of the river. The incident has been a sobering experience for everyone in the area. Boaters seem to have taken it to heart even though this was not a "boating accident". I suspect the use of PFD's will become more evident. The waters around here usually look tranquil. This has been a reminder that water can always be dangerous. Now I'll get off my soap box. Ed Bean *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 15 1999 - 12:29:24 PDT
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