Powers Creek Rescue
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/West Kelowna Fire Department
June 14, 2020 - 7:53 AM
A girl who was too close to a rain-swollen river bank in West Kelowna was caught by the current of Powers Creek and swept into the large culvert under Highway 97, requiring a nighttime rescue by fire crews.
"The patient was very fortunate to make it through the culvert without impediment and released on the opposite side of the highway," Chad Gartrell, West Kelowna assistant fire chief, said in a press release. "The patient took the correct actions by finding a rock mid-channel to get up onto and wait for the technical rescue team to arrive to bring her to the shore,"
Crews then made their way out onto the rock, placed a life jacket on the patient and set up downstream containment prior to extrication.
Once to shore, Gartrell said the tech team transferred the patient into a basket stretcher and used a rope rescue retrieval system to raise them up to the highway. There, a BC Ambulance crew treated and transported the patient, who had non-life-threatening injuries, to KGH.
A High Streamflow Advisory has been issued throughout the Okanagan by the River Forecast Centre. Localized thunderstorms causing heavy downpours Friday night and sustained precipitation all day Saturday are causing rivers and creeks to rise rapidly. The public is urged to stay clear of fast-flowing rivers and creeks that may cause unstable riverbanks during peak flows.
RCMP and BCAS assisted with this incident.
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