Raging river forces two rescues in three days

GRAFTON - The heavy rains that have fallen in Ozaukee County seemingly every other day have created a potentially deadly situation on the Milwaukee River, where kayakers, including a 2-year-old boy, had to be rescued in two incidents over three days last week.

But the five people rescued by local emergency crews weren’t the only ones who were endangered by the quickly running water. Grafton and Saukville Fire Chief Bill Rice said he knows of at least one other similar incident that took place during that same time period.

It’s a situation so dangerous that the Sheriff’s Office is urging kayakers to avoid the river in the Town of Grafton until water levels subside and conditions improve.

“People will say, ‘I go down there all the time and it’s not bad,’” Rice said. “But they don’t realize what it’s like when the water is as high as it is, and it’s going to stay high for a while.”

 The problem is not just the rain that’s fallen in abundance but also the number of dead ash trees lining the river, he said.

“It (the river) is definitely high this year,” Rice said. “It’s unprecedented.

“And when the water gets higher, people get out (on the river) more because it’s more exciting.”

The high water levels create a fast-running river, something that many kayakers seek out for the adventurous runs they can navigate, he said.

But, Rice added, there are many “low-hanging limbs that have fallen or built up in the river, causing hazards.

“There’s so much water, you have strong currents, and with these added obstacles, they come together to cause these problems.”

Kayakers often launch at Lime Kiln Park without realizing the hazards, Rice said.

“They put them in and they’re off,” he said. “But if you look at the Milwaukee River, it’s not a straight river. There are big islands there, and the islands are where people historically get into trouble.”

Take the department’s first call at about 2:35 p.m. last Thursday, June 27. The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office received a report of two kayakers in trouble on an island in the river near Heather Court in the Town of Grafton.

Rice said a 49-year-old man and his 16-year-old son from the Town of Grafton were kayaking when their kayaks overturned, throwing them in the water.

They told officials later that they were heading down the river when the water looked rough so they decided to go around the island rather than through the turbulent patch, Rice said. But as they came around the island, they hit an area where branches were in the water.

“The water has tremendous force,” he said, and once it hits debris, the water swirls and the kayak moves sideways, often flipping and tossing its occupant into the water.

The father and son managed to get to an island about 50 feet from shore, where they were cold and wet but otherwise unharmed, Rice said.

That area of the shoreline just south of Manchester Drive in the Town of Grafton is “very challenging,” he said.

Both the Grafton and Saukville fire departments responded, and Rice said they sent a rescue swimmer into the water with  a rope to make it to the island.

“That’s dangerous,” Rice said. “It’s very challenging. The current has the appearance of not being very bad there — it looks smooth.”

But, he said, the rescue swimmer told him later that when he got only a few feet from shore, he couldn’t stand because of the swift current.

The swimmer got to the island and began setting up a pulley system to bring the two men back to shore when “we looked and saw a shoe going down the river, followed by a kayak,” Rice said.

A Sheriff’s Office drone was used to check the river and ultimately found a man and woman upstream who had lost one of their kayaks, he said. They asked the couple to wait while they completed the first rescue.

After they got the father and son to shore, Rice said, they went back to the couple who had decided to try and rescue themselves, he said. The man grabbed onto the woman’s kayak and held on as they floated downstream.

“We assume they’re fine,” Rice said. “We never heard from them again.”

On Saturday, he said, “this whole process repeated itself.”

This time the call came in just before noon. Firefighters found a 38-year-old man and his 2-year-old son on an island in the river in the same area near Manchester Drive.

They heard yelling, and the Port Washington and Saukville police departments used their drones to locate the 36-year-old mother, who was on an island about 200 feet to the north of the father and child.

The family, who live in Mequon, were kayaking when they became separated in rough water, Rice said. Both kayaks overturned, and the occupants were thrown into the water.

Both adults had life jackets but were not wearing them at the time, he noted. The child was wearing his life jacket.

No one was injured, Rice said.

Each rescue took about 45 minutes to complete, he said.

In addition to the Grafton and Saukville fire departments, the Port, Waubeka, Fredonia and Cedarburg fire departments, as well as the Grafton and Saukville police departments, Ozaukee County Emergency Management and Ozaukee County Drone Team, responded to the calls.