Pigeon River Fatality
4/1/2021
Adam Herzog
On April 1st 2021 I was paddling with a group of three on the Pigeon River Dries. The water was high from recent rain and it was unusually cold with snow flurries.
Myself, Steve McGrady and Chris Harjes put on and connected with another group of two-Ryan Osborne and Johnny Ortiz. We paddled together as one group and finished uneventfully. At the takeout I switched into a playboat and Chris and I continued downstream to run the classic class III Pigeon Gorge.
I was surprised to see commercial raft activity at the Gorge put in. A group of four or five rafts was putting on. The air temp was in the mid to high thirties. It was also windy with gust billowing at 20-30 mile per hour. The water temp was in the high forties to low fifties. The customers were wearing PFDs, helmets, and splash tops/pants. Some of them wore wetsuits.
The river was running over 4000 cfs at Waterville.
The Pigeon starts off with a bang, especially at high water. The first ¾ mile below the put in are nonstop, pushy class III rapids. The waves are big and powerful and the river is deep. All but the biggest boulders are submerged at 4000. It is reminiscent of a Western style run like Brown’s Canyon.
Chris and I ripped down the set and hit the first significant pool. I saw the raft trip pulled over and paddled closer to ask if anyone knew what time it was. No one was flagging us down or asking for help.
As I approached the group, I realized they were performing CPR on a rafting customer. His lifejacket and helmet had been removed by the guides. He was a large man, at least 350 pounds. He appeared to be in his mid-forties.
I offered assistance as a trauma/emergency RN and paramedic and led the scene from that point on. 911 had already been called.
We were told that the raft had dumped the entire crew at the first rapid (Powerhouse) and the patient had swum all the rapids below the site of the dump. It was reported that he still had signs of life when they got him to shore such as coughing/sputtering. We began switching chest compressors every two minutes and intermittently attempting rescue breaths. We removed his clothing from the waist up. He was wearing a sweater under a paddling jacket. He did not have a wetsuit on when we arrived. He had splash pants on his lower body but no neoprene. He did have one episode of vomiting. We rolled him to his side to prevent aspiration, but he did not start breathing on his own.
One of the guides mentioned that another customer was unaccounted for so Chris headed downstream to search for other swimmers. He came back a few minutes later and said everyone had been found and was safe.
We were on river right, several hundred feet below the interstate. A rescue truck arrived to help but the bank was too steep to extricate so we decided to ferry across the river. The road on river left is close to the river. Steve, his wife Stephanie, Ryan and Johnny had all stopped their vehicles to help us.
I kayaked across to a waiting ambulance and they gave me a long spine board. I ferried back to river right with the board. We loaded the patient onto the spine board (so we could continue effective CPR) and into the raft.
Five of us got into the raft and we floated a short distance to an eddy upstream of the bridge. Steve was waiting there and threw us a rope. We pendulumed into the eddy and handed off to the rescue and EMS crew.
I never saw signs of life beside the vomiting episode. The time from our first contact to hand off to EMS was approximately 30 minutes. According to news sources the man was pronounced dead.
Contributing factors: cold water, cold weather, high water, probable inexperience swimming in whitewater, inappropriate clothing.
One man dead after raft capsizes on Pigeon River Wednesday afternoon
Responders said that the incident happened before 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon. One man was found unresponsive in the water.
Author: WBIR Channel 10 Staff
Published: 5:11 PM EDT April 1, 2021
COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — UPDATE: The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said that the call came in at around 1:40 p.m. and that the man had died after a raft capsized on the Pigeon River, upstream of Hartford. They said the victim was not a Tennessee resident and was wearing a life jacket. His name was not immediately available.
Initial Report – they got the boat wrong!
Responders said one man was found unresponsive in the water after a kayaking incident in Cocke County. They said that they were sent out after calls about a kayaking accident before 2 p.m. on Thursday. The man was taken downriver on a backboard after firefighters arrived, officials said. CPR was being performed on him when they arrived, responders said. They also said that the incident happened near the eastbound Waterville exit on-ramp, in Cocke County. This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available, including the identity of the victim and details about what caused the accident.
Man drowns when raft flips on the Pigeon River
By Ray Snader,
Citizen-Tribune, Morristown, TN
Apr 2, 2021
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has confirmed a man drowned Thursday on the Pigeon River in Cocke County. TWRA spokesperson Matthew Cameron says that at approximately 1:40 p.m., Norvell Fleming, 39, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, died after a raft capsized upstream from Hartford while the man was on a trip with a commercial rafting company.
“The victim, who is not a Tennessee resident, was wearing a life jacket. Out of respect for the victim’s family, his identity is being withheld,” Cameron said. According to Cocke County Emergency Management Director Joe Esway, the incident involved a flipped commercial raft in the Pigeon River at Waterville Road off of I-40 mile marker 451. In addition to TWRA and Cocke County EMA, the Cocke County Sheriff’s Department and the Grassy Fork Volunteer Fire Department were on the scene and assisted in the recovery.
