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Yesterday after dropping our daughter off for work I heard a call on the scanner for a rafter in trouble on the Stillaguamish River, possibly underwater. I was only 10 minutes away so I headed to Blue Stilly park to see what was going on.
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There were several units on scene and they were scrambling to get the hovercraft into the water:
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Apparently a woman was floating the river with a group and became entangled in some trees, and pulled underwater. The hovercraft was up at the incident location within just a few minutes. The hovercraft and technicians worked to free the woman and get her on the hovercraft.
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CPR was in progress as the hovercraft went back down the river with the patient.
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CPR continued while they prepared the patient for Airlift, which landed in the field nearby:
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The hovercraft headed back out to get two others back to shore, and airlift was loaded up and they headed for Harborview.
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I did not have my DSLR with me, so these were all shot with my iPhone4 and my Canon G10. I did manage to get some video of Airlift leaving the scene with the patient:
A few hours later a guy drove a van off highway 530 and also ended up in the Stillaguamish river, resulting in a second full river rescue. He did not survive. Busy day on the river.
© 2011, Bill Gillam. All rights reserved.