WESTLOCK – A 69-year-old man who went overdue during a jaunt down the Pembina River last Sunday, was found safe and sound following an exhaustive search that included the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) Air 1 Helicopter.
Westlock RCMP Detachment Cpl. Brad Schram said on July 23 they received a report that a man who had been boating down the Pembina was seven hours past when he should have been finished. They, along with Fish and Wildlife members and the EPS chopper, sprang into action and conducted the search and eventually located him “in good health” near Flatbush as he had gotten “tired and stranded on the wrong side of the river.”
While thankfully there’s been few tragedies on area lakes and rivers over the years, there have been close calls like an incident in the spring of 2021 when a man tubing on the Pembina River was having abdominal pains and had to be taken to hospital via ambulance, or the one in 2018 when two teenage girls got lost tubing down the river but were eventually found.
Around 8 p.m., May 30, 2021, Westlock County firefighters received a 911 call that a person in distress was floating down the Pembina River in an unknown location southwest of Highway 18. County fire chief John Biro said they, along with EMS and RCMP, responded and began staging a rescue operation at the Rossington Bridge. Fortunately, they learned from EMS that the man was able to make it to shore further upstream to an awaiting ambulance.
Biro has said previously they receive similar reports every couple of years, including one in 2018 when they got a call that two teenage girls had been on the river and hadn’t made it home.
“The call came in around midnight, so the worst was thought. We met out at the Sunniebend Bridge and estimated kind of where they should be. We were just about to do a full search and headed south of the bridge and the two girls popped out of a field,” Biro recalled. “They were still in their bathing suits and bare feet and they were pretty badly cut up after walking through a canola field. They didn’t know where they were because it was pitch black out. Once they got off the river, they probably ended up walking a mile. Thankfully the girls ended up being OK.”
Biro offered some advice to folks looking to make a river trip and said the first step is to monitor the Alberta Rivers Forecast.
Mapping your route is also key and setting checkpoints with whoever is picking you up is also recommended, Biro said, noting there is safety in numbers so never travel alone. Life jackets are also a must, as is a cell phone, and although it’s tempting to have a six-pack at your side, staying sober could be the difference between life and death.
