Three dead, one saved, in another low head dam tragedy

[Glenn MacGrady]

"After a rescue boat capsized near a dam on Lake Springfield in Springfield, Missouri, members of the Springfield Fire Department were forced to rappel from a bridge to save a young girl from the raging waters below. The devastating incident claimed the lives of two people, left one person missing, and sent three rescuers to the hospital. Dramatic footage captures the high-risk rescue effort as emergency crews raced against the powerful current."

In the videos accompanying the article, the hydraulic reversal below the dam looks so long that it appears that the entire river is sloping downhill towards the upstream killer dam. The second video, chronologically first, shows the first rescue Zodiac power boat losing the battle against the reversal and flipping over.

2 dead, 1 still missing after young girl saved in dramatic rescue operation at Missouri lake

Rescue boat capsizes during tense rescue operation, juvenile girl rescued as two people dead, one missing after group swept into dangerous area of a lake in Springfield, Missouri.

www.foxweather.com

 

[MrPoling]

This is so sad. We had a similar incident here several years ago, where an unaware family tubed over a low head dam, and most of them drowned. The poor kid who survived was in the water overnight. That's gotta be so traumatic.

Watching that video I can't figure out why they sent a boat in if they could get a rope to the victim. It seems like such a straightforward decision to send somebody down the rope rather than putting a boat in that hydraulic.

 

[tketcham]

I find it difficult to understand how these killing machines are allowed to remain. I know it will cost a fortune to retrofit (or remove) low head dams but Congress seems to find tens of billions in extra military spending.

 

[Tryin']

The videographer called it correctly at 00:24 of the boat flip video: "If they go down there, they aren't coming back up"

Like Glenn said, the river looks like it has 3-4' of upstream back slope in extremely aerated water. That boat had already low odds of coming back over that hump. Looks like prop fouling or other motor trouble sealed the deal. The boat crew was ready for what came next, although you hate to have to put that training to the test. Working on video evidence alone, ropework would have been the call, but that's the benefit of sitting in my chair and not being on scene.

A similar scenario is part of our promotion testing at work and is designed to put the candidate in the impossible place of deciding if/how to risk a second unit for the sake of rescue when the first unit is lost in a failed attempt.

Most incidents at our collection of low head dams are not from people going over, but getting too close and being caught in the backflow.