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DEM #00-1831 July 25, 2000 |
Listed below is the mission report on the John Cronk swiftwater search of July 25, 2000, submitted by John Miner. Editor.
There were only two of us who responded, John Kirkman and myself. We arrived on the second day of the mission and when we were there, three counties were represented with only a few rescuers and Deputies. Pierce, Thurston, and Mason counties had dive/swiftwater rescue people involved.
July 25, 2000. We arrived before the 0900 designated rendezvous time at the nursing home in McKenna. At 0915 there was no one around and I started to make some phone calls. At 0935 Pierce County Sgt. Buck Mierke arrived and escorted us the ten miles to the very remote site on the Nisqually River where base was established. We were told that this accident occurred with a guided group of some 80 people in thirteen rafts. The raft the victim was in had struck a "sweeper" and overturned, putting the entire complement of rafters into the river. The victim, 66 year old John Cronk, was one who went in. He was seen to reach upward with both hands, at which point his PFD popped off and he went under, not to be seen again. His 64-year-old wife witnessed all of this. Other occupants made it to a gravel bar or were picked up by other boats. There was apparently some confusion to add to this tragic case in that the wife was told that her husband had been picked up, but it turned out that it was another man named John. There was some delay in reporting the accident. We were told that there had been a bank search, a helicopter had flown the area, and boats had been in the water.
Initially we were to assist with underwater cameras being deployed from the two rubber boats that we had on site. We had some difficulty in that the current would not allow the use of one camera mounted "batwing" configuration, so we had to rig the camera on a pole. While this worked better, visibility was limited to about three feet in the better conditions. The accident site was approximately 100 yards upstream from our grassy and forested base site. The river is not particularly swift here, but it is deep in places (one 21-foot deep hole) with considerable volume. The suspect "sweeper" was obvious, with fairly shallow water and the main current thrusting directly into it. There was a logjam with a modest curve in the river just downstream river right and across from base where one paddle had been found lodged in the bottom. Nothing else had been located. After we exhausted the use of the cameras near the accident site, we discussed the afternoon search plan. No one had been in the water searching the banks downstream from the base site, though there had been a bank search. John, myself and Sgt. Jim Dunn (sp?) from Thurston County S.O. suited up and with boat support searched the bank river left downstream from that logjam. Approximately 150 yards downstream from our base site, the river made a 95 degree-plus turn to the right. We had a throw bag and a pike pole we could use to probe for our team gear, as well as the dive masks that we all possessed. We first found a paddle and binocular case washed onto the bank, then saw another paddle in the log jam that formed the outside of the river's turn. Sgt. Dunn found a large purple duffel bag in about three feet of water near a root mass that contained many clothing items. We used a throw bag line tether and swam out to retrieve two paddles from the logjam and then brought the boat to us that had the camera. We swam and crawled up onto the logs and probed with the "camera on a stick", trying to see under the logjam as far as we could. We retrieved yet another paddle, spotted only by a half inch wide white band in the middle of the otherwise jet black paddle. There were several water bottles from the raft in this mass of logs as well. A search of about another 80 yards downstream turned up nothing more than a hornet's nest. All of these items were found within this 100-yard bend in the river. We returned to base, a quick bite to eat with the Salvation Army volunteers and the mission was concluded. At that time, Sgt. Mierke did not believe they would resume the search.
Overall the mission went well. The cooperation with all of the officers and others present was very good. We could have benefitted from more rescuers in the water, but we did a good search with what we had. It seems most likely that the victim is under one of the suspect logjams, beyond the visibility of the cameras or our dive masks.
For our members, this swiftwater mission pointed out the importance of having all of your gear. John and I had all of our "stuff," and that was important, since we did not have the truck. I had my own throw-bag and some kind of dive mask to look underwater, as well as protecting your face, was very important. While I had one in my bag, the use of a snorkel worked well too in this particular setting for Sgt. Dunn. We were doing a lot of swimming in eddies searching with the camera and it was easier with a snorkel to see and point the camera while keeping your face in the water. There were a lot of root masses, submerged "sweepers" and other foot entrapments, as is common in this river. The bottom was at times gravel, slippery rock, and deep mud. There were strong back eddies, whirlpools and strong flowing water under stumps and collapsing mud hillsides, sometimes undercut by as much as fifteen feet.
Respectfully submitted,
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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