SULTAN — A man died in a rafting accident on the Sultan River on Saturday afternoon.
He was one of four people in a raft that overturned on some rapids downstream from the Culmback Dam, Sultan Fire Chief Merlin Halverson said. His body was recovered near 125th Street SE, off of Trout Farm Road in Sultan.
“There were four of them in the raft,” Halverson said. “They didn’t make the rapids. They were all thrown into the water. Three of them were recovered by kayakers.”
Authorities were notified shortly after 4 p.m. The man who died was believed to be in his late 30s, Halverson said.
The river was busy that day because of whitewater conditions created by the Snohomish County PUD temporarily opening a valve at the base of the dam. The planned release put a higher-than-normal amount of water into the river, peaking over a three-hour period between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. By late last week, more than 100 people had registered with the PUD for the event.
Most of the people on the river Saturday were kayakers.
One of them was Jordy Searle, 27, a professional kayaker from New Zealand who happened upon the accident. Searle and the three other kayakers with him had just come around a bend in the river and were navigating the rapids.
“We noticed an upturned raft in the middle of the river,” he said. “Just downstream, there were two people from the raft waving at us distraughtly.”
The kayakers learned that two rafters were OK, but that two more were missing, he said. They found a third rafter a short distance downstream, on a rock. They told the survivors to stay put as they continued downstream to search for the missing man.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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