Close calls as 4 people pulled from raging streams

[splashhopper]

An 8-year-old boy and his mother came close to drowning when they were swept away in a rain-swollen Burlington creek Saturday.

 

And, hundreds of kilometres to the north in Muskoka, two adults narrowly avoided the same fate when they ventured into the fast-running waters of the Muskoka River; they were saved by bystanders — including embattled Industry Minister Tony Clement, who ran to help from his nearby home.

 

In the Burlington incident, eight-year-old Leif Gorrie was wandering along raging Tuck Creek — normally a small placid stream — with his mother Nicky Ramsay, 39, and stepsisters Abbie, 13, and Bailey, 11, on Saturday afternoon when he innocently dipped a foot into the water.

 

When the current tore off his Pokemon flip-flop, Lief tried to get it back — and fell into the swift-flowing stream.

 

Abbie immediately jumped in after Leif.

 

“I just kept saying, ‘I’m not going to die, I’m not going to die,’” Abbie told the Star Sunday. Bailey almost jumped in after them but instead ran about 50 metres to get her mother Nicky, who sprinted down to the creek and jumped in.

 

“I couldn’t believe how fast it was,” Ramsay said, “and how deep it was — I couldn’t see anything or anybody.”

 

There were now three people in the water.

 

Leif managed to extricate himself about 100 metres downstream by grabbing onto overhanging branches and pulling himself to shore

 

Abbie, who by this point could no longer see Leif, also snatched onto some brush and clawed her way out of the water, then sprinted up the embankment near Rockwood Dr. and Walkers Line looking for help when she came across a neighbour who called 911.

 

Meanwhile, the swift current swept Ramsay downs the creek, which neighbours said is usually 10 cm deep and two metres wide, but which swelled to 1.5 metres deep and nearly eight metres wide after heavy rainfall Saturday.

 

Ramsay bombed past the Rockwood Dr. embankment.

 

“I didn’t see my kids, so I wasn’t trying to get out,” Ramsay said, “But I probably couldn’t have even if I wanted to.”

 

Police responded to the call in less than a minute, according to acting Staff Sgt. Dan Gheller of Halton Regional Police Services.

 

An officer spotted Ramsay and ran beside the creek before taking off his equipment belt and jumping in. The water was rushing too fast for the officer to corral Ramsay, but both soon latched onto a flotation device tossed into the raging waters by police officers waiting downstream.

 

Ramsay travelled nearly two kilometres before she finally got out of the water.

 

Neighbours say the creek is prone to flash floods, although no warning signs exist near the area. Ramsay and her children were treated at the hospital and released.

 

“Parents need to ‘creekwise’ their kids,” Gheller said, “and tell them to stay away from the water when it swells like that.”

 

Several hours later, around 7 p.m. Saturday on the Muskoka River in Port Sydney, a young woman known only as Jennifer got into trouble in the nearby rapids. One of her friends, a young man, went in after her.

 

Amanda Anderson heard the screams, rushed to the water’s edge and jumped in, fully clothed. Clement, the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka who has a house on the other side of the river, heard the commotion and ran out to help, as did his wife Lynne and her father, Doug Goulding.

 

Clement said he dove in with his shorts and T-shirt and swam after the woman, but pulled back when he realized she was too far away, and felt an undertow pulling him down.

 

But Anderson pushed on, as did Goulding, who ran around the shoreline, strapped on a life-jacket and plunged into the roiling waters with a second life-jacket. He then grabbed the woman and brought her to shore.

 

“They got to her first, which was great,” Clement said, “It was a real community effort, a team effort.”

 

It was then they finally noticed the other man, crumpled on nearby rocks.

 

“We rushed over to him, and he was breathing, just spent,” Anderson said, who was also breathing hard after fighting the fast-moving water.

 

Brad Oke, a paramedic with Medavie EMS, treated Jennifer on scene, but had to transport the young man to hospital for exhaustion.

 

“He was in bigger trouble then her,” Oke said, “But he’s all right now.”

 

People need to be careful around water, said OPP Const. Mark Boileau, especially this summer, when there’s so many rain-swollen creeks and rivers.

 

“Keep children within arm’s length,” Boileau said, “And adults should wear life jackets if they’re going to play around the water.”

 

According to Barbara Byers of the Lifesaving Society, there have been 219 drownings in Canada in 2010 compared with 188 this time last year. As of Friday, 68 of those drownings occurred in Ontario.

 

But this weekend had a positive outcome, in part due to the rescuers involved. Best of all, Leif’s Pokemon flip-flop floated back to him as he recovered on the water’s edge, now a ‘creekwise’ kid.

 

Liam Casey Staff Reporter

Toronto Star

[kickingfrog]

My understanding of the Muskoka incident is that the people were body surfing in a small set of rapids, and from the ministers own description he almost became a victim himself in the churning water.

[Paully]

all the news channels keep calling tony clement a hero.. If you stand back and look at the situation, he jumped in the water and saw he cant help and came back to shore..

I understand he tried to help but why do they make him out to be batman?

 

.. and that's what grinds my gears

[bigugli]

The rapids below the Mary Lake dam can be quite dangerous with a sudden outflow following a t-boomer and downpour. Younger kids in life jackets have found themselves trapped in some of the pool's back eddies until we've tossed lines to them.

Been sucked under once while wading for smallies further downstream. oth the first time I've "bathed" my camera

[BillsTheBassMan]

Lots of drownings this year with all the rain and heat . . . it sounds like at least 4 people were REALLY lucky that they weren't stats on that list either.

 

You've got to stay smart out there folks.

[canuckjack]

all the news channels keep calling tony clement a hero.. If you stand back and look at the situation, he jumped in the water and saw he cant help and came back to shore..

I understand he tried to help but why do they make him out to be batman?

 

.. and that's what grinds my gears

 

I think the bottom line is he risked his life in an attempt to save someone else's. He may have been unsuccessful but it's still a brave act....Not heroic, but brave.

 

Iggy on the other hand thinks he's brave for riding a bike:

http://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/blog/the-day-of-living-dangerously/

[splashhopper]

I think the bottom line is he risked his life in an attempt to save someone else's. He may have been unsuccessful but it's still a brave act....Not heroic, but brave.

 

I agree... not sure why this topic has to devolve in to a political mud slinging when the post is about the danger of swollen creeks