Sheriff’s team rescues 2 from overturned boat in Nooksack River
A Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office team rescued two men who were clinging to a boat in the Nooksack River near Nugents Corner on Thursday morning, June 18.
Assistant Chief Rachel Carlson of Whatcom County Fire District 1 told The Bellingham Herald that deputies brought the men to an ambulance waiting in the 6000 block of Lawrence Road south of Everson.
“They were found by the search and rescue boat, holding on,” Carlson said. “We treated them for exposure” but they decided not to go to the hospital.
Carlson said initial calls to 911 said two people had overturned in a boat near 3604 Cedarville Road, and a Washington State Patrol trooper saw them and radioed their location and condition to responding units.
That address is just east of the bridge over the Mount Baker Highway, near the confluence of the river’s north and south forks.
They were found about a mile downstream, and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection search and rescue crew had staged its crew farther downstream in case the boat began to move again, Carlson said.
Sheriff’s deputies and the BORSTAR crew were working to retrieve the boat.
According to data averages from NOAA’s Northwest River Forecast Center, the river at Deming was flowing about 700 cubic feet per second, which is about average for that location.
Water temperature was about 49 degrees.
According to the U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force, people can lose consciousness within 30 to 60 minutes in water that cold, an death can occur in 1 to 3 hours.
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 11:01 AM.
