Two White-Water Rafters Killed, 10 Others Rescued On Oregon River

A surge of swirling water roared through a narrow gorge, killing two white-water rafters and forcing 10 others to cling for life to the mossy, 1,800-foot walls overnight.

In a daylong rescue effort, helicopters lowered wires into the gorge Monday to pull out cold, wet survivors from the rocks along the treacherous stretch of southwestern Oregon’s Illinois River known as the Green Wall.

The only other traces found from Sunday’s accident were two empty, overturned rafts three miles down river.

The body of Wilbur Byars, 62, of Aloha, Ore., was pulled from the river Monday. Another rafter, Jeff L. Alexander, 37, of Portland, was missing and presumed dead.

The surge was caused by heavy rain and snow melt that more than doubled the water volume on the river in a day and a half.

“When that water comes through that chute, there’s nothing you can do, there’s nowhere you can go to escape,” said Curry County sheriff’s Lt. Mark Metcalf.

Bob Tooker, of Vancouver, Wash., was rescued along with four Portland rafters. Tooker, 33, said the accident was unavoidable.

“‘All of us are professional-quality rafters. I’ve got 18 years experience,” he said. “It was an unfortunate circumstance.”

Rescuers had to wait until daybreak Monday to search for survivors because the raging waters were too dangerous for rescue boats to go in and heavy rain and fog prevented helicopters from flying over the remote canyon.

When the search began, authorities initially thought as many as 30 people could be missing - a number based on the permits issued for people to launch their boats.

But a painstaking check of the people who obtained permits determined that all had been accounted for. Some never launched because of the bad weather, and at least four made it out of the water on their own without incident. Even some rafters who went out on the water without a permit were found.

“As far as we’re concerned, the operation is over,” Metcalf said.

Metcalf said a flyover will be made this morning just to make sure there is no one else on the river, and the search will go on for the remaining body.

The accident came to light when a kayaker who was on the river during the surge Sunday managed to paddle to a landing upriver and call police.

Coast Guard helicopters gingerly hovered over the gorge, as narrow as 20 feet in spots, and lowered rescuers by wire to pull people out along a mile and a half stretch of river.

All those plucked from the rocks appeared to be in good condition, with only mild cases of hypothermia.

“They weren’t beat up or bruised or anything like that - they’re just cold,” said Millie Bird, an administrator at Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach, where three of the survivors were treated.

Due in part to the steep gorge the river flows through, water rises quickly during a rainstorm. River flows that begin as manageable only for experienced rafters can quickly become a raging torrent.

Rainfall averaged 2 inches a day over the weekend, and unseasonably warm weather has made for a heavy snow melt.

While a normal flow on the river is 3,000 cubic feet per second, it was swelled to 10,000 cubic feet per second by Sunday morning and was expected to crest at about 17,600 cubic feet per second late Monday.