WC men rescued from Boone River
By Lori Berglund — Daily Freeman-Journal Editor
POSTED: June 9, 2008
BELLS MILL PARK – Two Webster City men, ages 77 and 78, were pulled from the Boone River upstream from Bells Mill Park shortly before 4 p.m. today. The men had been wearing lifejackets, were in the water for more than an hour as emergency responders worked first to locate and then rescue the men, who had put in the Boone River at Webster City at about noon.
Two members of the Boone County Search and Rescue team pulled the men from the river into a small rescue craft and then sped them to the flooded Bells Mill Park, where the bridge and adjacent road were teaming with ambulances, sheriff’s deputies ,and additional rescue personnel.
When taken into the rescue boat,one of the men was clinging to a pile of debris that was also being swept along by the fast-moving current. The other man was simply being carred along by the current. The rescuers said they simply grabbed hold of them by the arm and hauled them into the boat to safety.
As they were unloaded from the rescue boat at Bells Mill, the men were ash-gray and appeared to be dazed. However, they were answering important questions from emergency responders and confirmed that they had been travelling alone in a canoe. Both men were suffering from hypothermia and at least one of them reportedly had many bruises about the head.
The men are brothers, live together, and are belived to have little other family. However, The Daily Freeman-Journal is withholding names until certain that any next of kin is notified.
Two air ambulances landed at the scene, with one victim taken to Iowa Methodist Medical Center and the other to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. Their conditions were not available at this time,
This dramatic rescue poured out in the course of about two hours Monday afternoon and drew a flood of rescue workers to the swollen and flood-ravaged Boone River. Assisting at the scene were Volunteer and Fire Rescue Departments from Stratford, Stanhope, Kamrar,Boone County, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Hamilton County Conservation and Webster City Fire Department. Webster City Police also assisted, locating the vehicle the men had left in Webster City as they began their ill-fated canoe trip. Even Ralph Storm of Storm Flying Service was called upon to help locate the missing canoers.
The initial report of two men clinging to a canoe in the river had been phoned in to 911 from a worker at a gravel quarry along the Boone River. The canoe, as of this writing, has not beenlocated.
Chief Deputy Scott McConnell had one strong warning to make to anyone else considering a trip on the river.
“The river is not safe,” McConnell said pointedly. “Do not go in the river.”
Look for more details and photos of this dramatic rescue in Tuesday's Daily Freeman-Journal.
