Heavy rains in the week before Thanksgiving sent Wautauga River levels shooting up. On November 19th three men attempted to paddle the lower river, a roadside Class II run located below Wautauga Lake and upstream of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Their canoe flipped, and one man became pinned between the boat and some logs, and drowned. The other two paddlers managed to swim to a small, debris-strewn island. They were later brought to safety by the Carter County Swiftwater rescue Team.