WALHALLA — Rescue workers decided that getting Michael Thomas Dorris’ body home to his family outweighed the risk of one of them going into the gushing waters of the Chattooga River to retrieve it Wednesday.
Following a search challenged by heat, isolation and rugged terrain, workers pulled the Nashville man’s body from the water at 11:36 a.m.
A total of 100 river guides and emergency workers, some professionals and some volunteers, found Dorris’ body shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday, using an underwater camera. Oconee County Fire Chief Charlie King said the angle at which the body was wedged under a large rock and the current pushing against it hindered them from recovering it that day.
Dorris was rafting with his wife and teenage grandson and five other passengers Saturday afternoon when their craft flipped, pulling him downstream. They last saw him sink near Allison’s Rock in the Five Falls section of the river.
Oconee County emergency leaders showed photos of the rescue at a news conference Wednesday in Walhalla. Rescue workers used complex rope systems anchored on both banks of the river to stabilize a raft platform atop the slippery rock. Crews held ropes and workers stood behind them to back them up. They took shifts, King said, so they would be at their optimum strength.
A crew member got in the three feet of water and used a pole to move one of Dorris’ limbs. A sturdy rope net lifted the body out of the river. Nearby a helicopter operated by the South Carolina Army National Guard and state fire marshal’s office was ready to go in case of an accident.
Dorris was an avid rafter, and he and his wife were attempting the Chattooga for the first time.
He was rafting Saturday with Wildwater Ltd.
“The outfitter guides were operating well within the operating plan that we give them,” said Michelle Burnett, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forestry Service, which manages the river. “The flow levels were perfectly safe when they were out there.”
The river has no signs warning passengers of its dangers, Burnett said, because its threat is apparent.
“It’s Mother Nature,” she said. “It’s not a water park. It’s the Wild and Scenic Chattooga River.”
Dorris’ death was the first one known on the river involving a commercial rafting trip, and the first death in the river in nine years, according to Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis. One rescue worker suffered heat-related illness at the end of Wednesday’s work day around 1 p.m., King said. He recovered after drinking water and sitting in the shade and for about an hour.
“It was treacherous. It was dangerous,” Burnett said. “We had a lot of experts recovering Mr. Dorris’ body.”
Crews referred to drawings of rescues executed in the 1990s, and King said they were instructed to take notes on this week’s recovery while it was fresh on their minds.
Wildwater Ltd. released a prepared statement saying rafting staff immediately began calling for Dorris, throwing him ropes and dialing 911.
“Whitewater rafting is an active, physically demanding, participatory sport,” the statement says. “It involves inherent risks that can be minimized, but never eliminated, even for the most skilled and experienced rafters and raft guides.”
Commercial rafting tours continued during rescue attempts, but King said they did not hamper crews.
An autopsy for Dorris is planned Thursday, Addis said.
Dorris’ stepson, Lowrie Webber of Nashville, hiked three miles with two friends to the river banks. He stood 40 yards away watching the man he called his father leave the river.
“We discouraged him, but we also understand that for some people that’s the way they cope with it,” King said. “They’ve got a tough road ahead of them, but now they will be able to move on.”
