I'm baffled as to why they used a helicopter instead of a raft. This is Class II whitewater!
10 Kayakers Rescued from Potomac (4 By Helicopter)
PaddlingLife.com
October 7, 2024
Call it getting in a little over your head—with a helicopter coming from overhead to rescue you. And if you were the trip leader, it’s certainly not a trip you’re going to brag about. A total of 10 kayakers got separated after padding down the Potomac River (above the Great Falls section) on Sunday, Oct. 6, having to get rescued by Maryland state and local first responders after they “encountered rough waters,” according to authorities.
Four of those got rescued by a Maryland State Police Aviation Command helicopter, dangling in a rescue basket. According to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service public information officer Pete Piringer, crews were dispatched at 2:30 p.m. to the upper Potomac River area near Seneca after receiving a report of them being stranded on rocks. Two other people were also reportedly in the water downriver near Blockhouse Point Conservation Park & Trails, with four more stuck on an island near the Seneca site. Everyone was part of one group that had become separated .
The other people stranded on the river were helped by swiftwater rescue crews, four from rocks in the river and two were pulled out of the water. “It was all resolved within an hour. And everybody … [was] eventually reunited,” Piringer told news outlet MoCo 360., adding no injuries were reported. “The water level is tricky, it changes literally every day. When the water [level is] low, it’s extremely difficult [and] dangerous because rocks appear that are usually underwater. And when the water is high, the rocks are under the water and the currents change a bit.”
Piringer added it was unclear how the group became stranded or separated from their boats, but that the group likely started their “adventure” on the northern section of the river, above Great Falls, which is more accessible to recreational boating.
