Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

River search changes to recovery of body

Operations to resume at 8 a.m. Friday

La Plata County Search & Rescue was involved in two searches for men in the Animas River Thursday. One ended well, the other in tragedy.

A 20-year-old man apparently jumped into the river near Tank Creek Thursday evening. He was not wearing a personal flotation device, according to Butch Knowlton, director of the La Plata County Office of Emergency Management. Several companions ran alongside him as long as they could, Knowlton said.

The first search was for a 35-year-old local man who reportedly fell out of a kayak Thursday afternoon below Bakers Bridge. He made his own way home, where he reported he was all right on his Facebook page.

The dispatch call for the second search came at 7:23 p.m., according to Durango Fire Protection District Chief Dan Noonan, whose agency handled the scene until Search & Rescue arrived to take over.

Employees at the Tall Timber Resort attempted to help the 20-year-old but were unable to get him out of the water, Noonan said.

The water was rushing at an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 cubic feet per second. Knowlton said it was also cold, at 38 to 40 degrees. It wouldn’t matter how strong a person is in that cold water, he said, they’re going to weaken quickly.

The young man’s companions had described him as floating facedown in the water and not struggling, Knowlton said, which is when the search turned into a body recovery.

Also on scene were La Plata County Sheriff’s Office deputies and two helicopters, one from Flight for Life and one belonging to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The D&SNG helicopter picked Knowlton up at his ranch in the Animas Valley so he could organize the search at Rockwood, downriver from the spot where the man went into the river.

The search operation was based in Rockwood.

As of 9:30 p.m., it was dark, and operations were suspended for the night. Rockwood Gorge, the area of the river downstream from Tank Creek, narrows significantly, and boulders that have fallen from the cliffs into the river create powerful hydraulics, Knowlton said.

Recovery efforts will resume at 8 a.m. Friday, Knowlton said, with the D&SNG helicopter sweeping down the river from Tank Creek to the Trimble bridge.

Knowlton asked property owners and irrigators along the Animas, as well as boaters, to keep an eye out for the young man’s body.

The day’s first Animas River search began about 2 p.m. Thursday, when DFPD began an effort to locate and rescue the boater.

DFPD emergency medical services Capt. Shane Baird said the missing man was discovered at home by his girlfriend, who had initially reported him missing.

The man was uninjured, and Baird said he never entered the water.

“Apparently, there was miscommunication between him and his girlfriend,” Baird said.

Baird was unsure if the man had been in a kayak, raft or other watercraft.

The Animas was running at 3,040 cubic feet per second at the Durango gauge Thursday afternoon.

The median flow for this date is 1,920.

There have been several rescues along the Animas this year, including one of a 15-year-old girl who jumped in at Bakers Bridge earlier this week. This is the second death on the river in nine days and one of several in the state as Colorado’s rivers run high thanks to several weeks of rain.

abutler@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments