Swift water rescue teams from Montgomery and Fairfax counties raced to the Great Falls area of the Potomac River on the evening of May 16, hoping to save two kayakers who had fallen from their boat and been swept over falls on the Maryland side of the river.
While one kayaker escaped significant injury and managed to reach the shore before rescuers arrived, the other sustained traumatic injuries and was airlifted by a U.S Park Police helicopter from rocks amid the river’s rapids, according to authorities.
The pair’s red kayak remained “stuck in a hydraulic current, unable to be recovered,” Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) spokesman David Pazos wrote on social media that evening.
The young adult kayakers were “lucky to be alive,” he later said.
For those involved in Potomac River rescues, incidents like the one on May 16 signify the threat the river poses to those who enter its waters either as swimmers or boaters.
“The river looks very inviting and very peaceful and looks like a great place to be,” said Capt. Andrew Bell, who heads the MCFRS Swift Water Rescue Team. “But it has a very fast-moving current and there is a significant undertow in the river and because the water’s not clear … you cannot see the river bottom.”
Besides the dangerous conditions, “swimming is illegal in the section of the river from the D.C. line up through Great Falls, so we say ‘do not swim’, ” Bell said.
Bell’s team responds to approximately 100 calls for service per year on the Potomac. According to Bell, some of those calls are for people swept away by the river’s powerful current.
“We’ve had numbers of people that have just been wading in the river in waist-deep water, standing on a rock and literally take one step to their right or their left and it’ll be a 10-foot hole,” he said. “Now all of a sudden it’s over their head and the current’s pulling them away and they’ll drown.”
In recent years, Bell said the county has typically tallied between three and five drownings annually in the Potomac.
“You see some people who will get caught in the hydrology … and they’ll be stuck there unfortunately for days until they hit the point of buoyancy where their bodies will kind of blow up and they’ll come back to the surface,” Bell said. “That is not particularly uncommon. We see that usually several times a year.”
The Swift Water Rescue Team covers the Potomac River from the Washington, D.C., line to the Frederick County line. According to Bell, the majority of rescue calls occur in the southernmost section of the coverage area, starting around Great Falls Park in Potomac and continuing roughly 10 miles downstream to the District line. On the Virginia side of the river, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department conducts swift water rescue operations as well.
The Great Falls area of the Potomac poses an especially serious threat for anyone traversing the river. When the waterway reaches the falls, the National Park Service’s Great Falls Park website says “the Potomac River builds up speed and force as it falls over a series of steep, jagged rocks and flows through the narrow Mather Gorge.”
“The falls consist of cascading rapids and several 20-foot waterfalls, with a total 76-foot drop in elevation over a distance of less than a mile,” according to the park service.
“The hydrology of the river is world class in places,” Bell noted. “If you get up into the falls, that’s like a Class Five rapid. There are kayakers who come from around the world and the country to take on the challenge. It can be very challenging for those people and it is certainly challenging for us to operate.”
While navigating the rapids is difficult, Bell said accessibility may be an even greater obstacle for rescuers.
“We really have one location where we can kind of launch a boat from and that’s below the Old Anglers Inn,” Bell said, referring to a boat launch across from the Macarthur Boulevard restaurant in Potomac. He added that a deep embankment and muddy ground in the area adds to the difficulty.
Additionally, Bell said that swift water rescue crews are typically only able to rescue those who manage to rescue themselves first. After being swept into the river, people who manage to grab hold of a rock or navigate to a relatively safe spot buy themselves enough time for rescuers to arrive.
“It’s going to take me longer to get my boat to the river and get it launched than most people can safely swim or hold their breath,” Bell said.
According to Bell, swimming rescues usually occur in and around summertime once the water temperature nears 70 degrees. The department has received “a number of calls” for swimmers in distress over the past week, Bell said on Friday.
Kayak rescues, on the other hand, take place throughout the year.
“Most of the kayakers–I’ll give them credit–they are very, almost professional in their organization,” Bell said. “They tend to kayak in groups and look out for each other very well. Usually, they have rescued each other by the time we get there.”
Bell said kayakers and other boaters should wear a personal flotation device and helmet at all times, travel with another person and designate a return time and location with someone on shore.
Those who fall into the river, Bell said, should point their feet downriver and use their arms to try and navigate to an area shielded from the current. He also said a person being swept away should raise their feet and legs to avoid being trapped by a submerged rock or log and pinned by the current.
“If you slip and fall and splash into the water, obviously get your head up out of the water and get your feet up and get your feet in front of you,” Bell said. “Feet first, floating on your back. That’s the best way to kind of survive that situation.”