Re: [Paddlewise] Arrogance reigns

On Thu, Mar 23, 2000 at 01:29:18PM -0500, Paul Hollerbach wrote:
> Well, the 11 p.m. news splashed the story, sure enough the fools were
> rescued, putting emergency crews in jeapordy pulling their soggy butts out
> of that tree. The creek was raging such that their red canoe, aluminum, I
> assume, was below them wrapped around the tree like tissue paper. I can't
> guess at the force in cubic feet per minute that put it there.

I live 1.2 miles from the place where this happened; I've trained on
the Brandywine year-round for 8 years now.  When I was headed down
there yesterday -- NOT to paddle, just to eyeball it and be glad
I wasn't out there -- this was apparently all going on, because Route 1
was blocked off .5 mile from the site.

The gauge reading -- and coincidentally, it's located less than 150 yards
from where these two wrapped their canoe -- was 11,000 CFS.   See

	http://wwwpah2o.er.usgs.gov/rt-cgi/gen_stn_pg?station=01481000

where you can still see the spike from yesterday -- note that the
scale is logarithmic.

For comparison, normal flow this time of year fluctuates between 300
and 700 CFS, with spikes up to a few thousand CFS following day-long
rain events.  (This particular event dumped 5 inches in < 24 hours,
which is why the spike was much larger.)

Local rescue types apparently really like choppers -- 5 years ago
there was a similar incident on Perkiomen Creek, 40 minutes north,
and they brought one in from Cape May.  It was all a very dramatic
rescue -- highly dangerous -- but it would have been much simpler
if they'd just used a throw rope with a backup chase boater.
Yesterday was a different -- these two were treed in a wooded
area on the river left bank, and it would *not* be a good place
to be with a rope or in a boat -- too much chance of entanglement
or of becoming victim #3.   So in the case, I agree with their call
to use the motor launch -- I think the motor stalling was just
a bad break.

I can't believe these guys were out there.  I probably know the
river from around Lenape to Wilmington as well as anyone after
all these years, and even I was really intimidated by the power it
was showing yesterday.  [And unlike them, I have *never* gone out
there without a PFD and a helmet.]  I can't begin to understand
the hubris that led them to believe they could handle it.

---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk_at_gsp.org
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