Tubers and strainers! https://komonews.com/news/local/17-year-old-drowns-in-floating-accident-on-cle-elum-river#
17-year-old drowns in floating accident on Cle Elum River
by Action News Staff
May 23rd 2023
KITTITAS COUNTY, Wash. -- A 17-year-old boy drowned in a floating accident on the Cle Elum River on Saturday, according to the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say a group of seven young people from the Moses Lake and Warden area launched down the Cle Elum River near the Salmon La Sac campground on a raft of connected innertubes. Within minutes, they say, their raft was caught by tree limbs and underwater hazards.
One boy suffered an injury to his ankle.
They say the group was scattered and when they gathered, they realized a 17-year-old boy was missing. They called for help around 12:30 p.m. Medics and firefighters responded along with deputies to search downriver. They found the 17-year-old about two hours after the initial call. He had drowned and was trapped under a submerged log in the river. They say he was wearing a personal floatation device.
The boy with an ankle injury was treated at the hospital and reunited with his family.
CLE ELUM — A Moses Lake teenager drowned in the fast-flowing Cle Elum River on Saturday, despite wearing a flotation device.
Cristian Galvez, 17, has been identified as the young man killed when he and a group of friends launched a makeshift raft of connected innertubes near the Salmon La Sac campground. The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office says the raft upended within minutes, and Galvez was pinned beneath a submerged log.
