Peeeeepul can be so stupid
Jul. 8th, 2013 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
monkey5sThere were a lot of sirens this afternoon in my small town. And they weren't going away from town. Then, there was a helicopter. I thought it might be LifeFlight, which always leaves me torn between sorrow that someone was critically injured, and thankfulness that LifeFlight exists to give them a fighting chance. However, the helicopter just seemed to be flying around, not landing anywhere, or going anywhere.
After about 20 minutes the helicopter went away. I was still curious. So I went to the library! No, really, I did have books/DVDs to return, plus an arrived hold to pick up. But also, I thought people might have talked. According to what they had heard there, a couple of kids and a dog had to be rescued from the creek. But it was strictly hearsay (by which they meant the staffer whose husband is one of the volunteer firefighters in town, so he monitors the police band radio, was not at work this afternoon).
So I came home and checked my favorite of the local TV news websites. They had a brief article about a boy and a man being rescued from a rock in the creek. That didn't account for the helicopter, though. So I went to the more yellow-journalism-type local TV news website. Sure enough, they had sent the chopper, and they also had a video report from near the scene.
You have to understand, the creek in question is usually pretty shallow for most of its route along the edge of town, but we have had rain daily for over two weeks, and it's running fast and higher. And even shallow it's a bit of a tricky thing, because it has a deep bed, and steep cliffs for most of the way. Historically, this not-major creek served as a dividing line for our area of the state, simply because it was non-fordable. You could not easily get across until bridges were built. So, traditionally, people on the town side of the creek went west to Delaware, or south to Columbus, and people just across the creek went east to Johnstown.
So I was curious about how this kid and man got stuck on a rock. According to the video report, the kid and his buddies were swimming, and the current pulled him under, so his mom's boyfriend jumped in to help him. He got the two of them over to the trees on very small island in the creek, and they hung out there while the kid's mom called 911. The rescue took about an hour.
I wish I could say I was baffled by the sheer stupidity of swimming in a rain-swollen creek that is pretty awful with agricultural runoff from upstream even when it's not flooding. Unfortunately, I recognized the kid when they talked to him. Let's just say he isn't the most sensible kid around. I'm just glad his mom's boyfriend was keeping a close eye on the idiots.
After about 20 minutes the helicopter went away. I was still curious. So I went to the library! No, really, I did have books/DVDs to return, plus an arrived hold to pick up. But also, I thought people might have talked. According to what they had heard there, a couple of kids and a dog had to be rescued from the creek. But it was strictly hearsay (by which they meant the staffer whose husband is one of the volunteer firefighters in town, so he monitors the police band radio, was not at work this afternoon).
So I came home and checked my favorite of the local TV news websites. They had a brief article about a boy and a man being rescued from a rock in the creek. That didn't account for the helicopter, though. So I went to the more yellow-journalism-type local TV news website. Sure enough, they had sent the chopper, and they also had a video report from near the scene.
You have to understand, the creek in question is usually pretty shallow for most of its route along the edge of town, but we have had rain daily for over two weeks, and it's running fast and higher. And even shallow it's a bit of a tricky thing, because it has a deep bed, and steep cliffs for most of the way. Historically, this not-major creek served as a dividing line for our area of the state, simply because it was non-fordable. You could not easily get across until bridges were built. So, traditionally, people on the town side of the creek went west to Delaware, or south to Columbus, and people just across the creek went east to Johnstown.
So I was curious about how this kid and man got stuck on a rock. According to the video report, the kid and his buddies were swimming, and the current pulled him under, so his mom's boyfriend jumped in to help him. He got the two of them over to the trees on very small island in the creek, and they hung out there while the kid's mom called 911. The rescue took about an hour.
I wish I could say I was baffled by the sheer stupidity of swimming in a rain-swollen creek that is pretty awful with agricultural runoff from upstream even when it's not flooding. Unfortunately, I recognized the kid when they talked to him. Let's just say he isn't the most sensible kid around. I'm just glad his mom's boyfriend was keeping a close eye on the idiots.
