Saskatchewan family rescued from B.C. river
Just days after BC Hydro issued warnings to the public to stay out of the Puntledge River system on Vancouver Island, three individuals had to be rescued off a small island in the middle of the river Thursday evening.
BC Hydro is releasing water to manage levels at Comox Lake, resulting in the river running at twice the flow it normally does at this time of year.
RCMP, the Courtenay Fire Department, the BC Ambulance Service and Comox Valley Search and Rescue (CVSAR) all attended the call for people requiring assistance at 6:45 p.m.
CVSAR swift water teams are pictured on the Puntledge River. May 11, 2023. (CTV News)"We were aided by the Courtenay Fire Department and we put our swift water team in and removed the male and the two kids off of one of the islands in the river," said CVSAR member Scott Larsen.
The family is apparently from Saskatchewan and the trio was on a single flotation device when they reached a fork in the river below the Puntledge fish hatchery and lost the device.
"It certainly is high volumes, but they probably didn’t realize this is the high volumes we encounter at this location," Larsen said.
Swift water rescue team member Rob McMath says the family was very pleased to see their rescuers.
"They’d been on the island for about an hour and a half," McMath said. "It's about 18 degrees out so not too cold, but they were still damp and they were eager to get home and get warm."
Comox Valley Search and Rescue swift water teams are pictured on the Puntledge River. May 11, 2023. (CTV News)He says the fast-moving water created a challenge for the team members who had been practicing on the river just days earlier.
"Definitely more challenging than normal because of the speed. We didn’t have too much problem but I wouldn’t recommend novice recreational paddlers on the river at the moment," said McMath.
WARNINGS ISSUED
Warning signs advising people to keep out of the river from May 5 to 14 are posted at various locations, and on Friday morning the notice of high flows was changed to read until May 18.
BC Hydro spokesperson Stephen Watson says right now water flows are double what they normally would be, and will increase on Sunday and Monday to triple the amount.
"We’ve had a lot of snowmelt come into the system over the past few weeks, and that’s increased, and so the reservoir level has been coming up," he said.
"We’ve been controlling the reservoir. It’s actually moved down a little bit to have a bit of room," he added.
Watson says flows will increase from 65 cubic metres per second up to 90 and the situation will be reviewed next week to see if it needs to continue until the end of May.
Watson says on a typical summer day, upwards of 500 people can be in the river system, but he cautions that conditions are still too fast to enjoy the water safely right now.
"There’s an inclination to escape the heat and come into the river system, but it’s not the time to do that," he said.
"The hydraulics of the river system – it only takes 15 to 30 centimetres to knock down an adult, so please stay away and try to find some other locations to escape that heat."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.