A man
drowned this week in the San Joaquin/American River north of Antioch in the California Delta. A determination has not been made what the cause was, this is a very disturbing incident. We have numerous water tragedies in our area, I live on an island in the middle of the Delta. This time of year, between Memorial day and Labor day a lot of people come to the water for recreation. I like to see lot's of people having a good time, loud music, laughing, BBQ, people on the water generally are extremely friendly and face it, they're on vacation. There are a lot of beaches, places to fish and enough restaurants and gin mills to satisfy all stripes of people, it's a great place to live.
 |
| Those ain't racing suits these ladies are swimming in. |
From the newspaper article the man's hat blew off of his head, most people here wear hats due to the intense sun. They anchored the boat near where the hat was floating, after stabilizing the boat, the man jumped in. Witnesses said he was in the water for less than a minute when he started to struggle. The boat was near the shore line, it is not however an indication of depth, normally at the edge of our levee's the water drops immediately to 8 feet or deeper. The water is frigid, it is coming from the mountains, held in a huge reservoir gaining very little heat. There are water layers in the river, I live on a backwater slough with a slow current. Jumping in the water the surface of about two feet deep is relatively warm, maybe as warm as 70 degrees F. Four feet deep the water is colder, it truly does get colder at four feet, around 60 degrees F, a little deeper and you are in frigid water. I don't know what happened to the man that tragically drowned, there are a lot of possibilities, I don't really want to guess. I do know I have jumped in the water in the middle of the summer, ambient nearing 100 degrees F and upon entering was shocked by how cold it was. I have jumped in and returned to the surface gasping for air due to expelling all of the air in my lungs upon contact with the water. Cramping is possible and very common and there is "stuff" that floats just under the water. Every once in a while there will be a report of a person diving in the current and not surfacing again, most are recovered, some never are. There are many tragic stories here of accidents.
 |
| A person needs to be in excellent health to attempt this. |
So in the shadow of a tragic occurrence such as this most recent one I try to grasp a learning moment. In our water wonderland, where the birds are numerous, the raccoons and skunks own the place and rabbits do what rabbits do (all 10 million of them). I stress safe water practices, and the one action I can take, and hopefully everyone does is to wear a
PFD. Personnel Flotation Device, a life vest, wear one whenever on a boat, we require the grand-kids and others under 15 to wear one on the dock as well. The dog has one, we have full body flotation swim suits for toddlers, water wings, self inflating vest, the big bulky orange ones everyone hates, we also have "special" vest that more or less the kids take ownership of. We can all increase our chances of surviving an accidental fall in the water or an intentional swim that goes wrong.
The reason this accident alarms me so much, I am unable to not think about it, I have jumped in for a hat in much the same way. I have taken a dive out the back of a running boat, hey that is dumb, an disaster just waiting to happen. If you go on the water buy a good quality, comfortable PFD for each person, the $100.00 you spend is a lot less than a funeral.
Thanks for reading my blog, I'd like to hear your comments and suggestions. Have a good time on the water, wear your life vest.
jimandkate
EmergencyKitsPlus.com Emergency Survival Supplies
No comments:
Post a Comment