The search for a man who went missing in the Kootenay River on Friday, June 28, has been suspended until safety conditions improve.
Local Search and Rescue teams, along with the RCMP, were conducting ground and water patrols all weekend, searching the Kootenay River for the man, who went into the water Friday afternoon after his boat was dislodged from shore.
RCMP Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) operators were able to launch in an effort to locate the missing man, and local rescue teams were called in.
Peter Reid, with Kimberley SAR, said SAR moved in with Swift Water specialists on that Friday. Working with the RCMP, they started a ground and water search, at the point where the man was last seen, and working their way downstream, between Fort Steele and Wardner.
After the first day, the seachers shifted from a rescue attempt to a recovery attempt, in the same area, and with the same type of efforts as the previous day, but involving more Search and Rescue teams from the region, including Cranbrook SAR, Columbia Valley SAR, Golden SAR and Sparwood SAR.
“The river is extremely high at the moment, in the middle of freshet,” Reid said. “Our efforts are limited by the fact that the river is opaque — you can’t see into it at all. You can barely see your foot through four inches of water. It’s just that muddy and dark right now.
“RCMP have suspended the search, waiting for conditions to shift to the point where we can go back in.
We want to make sure we ensure the safety of our rescuers. We are highly motivated to find him, but it’s a matter of us waiting until such time as we safely go back and search the river.”
Ground and air search is ongoing.
The Kootenay River can seem easy-going and slow, but even at the best of times, a river can be unpredictable. During the freshet, or the spring run-off, a river can be very dangerous.
It’s extremely hard on the families — but the water is such a dynamic environment. People don’t realize the complexity of water, especially if you look at the Kootenay — it looks like its meandering along, particularly when it gets wide, it slows right down. Around Fort Steele it’s fairly narrow, so it’s running pretty quickly.”
For instance, on the right side of the river, just upstream from the bridge, there is a permanent eddy that during freshet becomes a large whirlpool.
“We put a couple of rescue jet boats in there the day before — we couldn’t even stabilize the boats enough to use any type of equipment,” Reid said.