One feared drowned, one plucked from river
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/05/2011 (5409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
One man is presumed drowned while another was rescued after a boat overturned tossing the pair into the frigid, swollen Assiniboine River near The Forks.
At press time last night, Winnipeg police officers and firefighters were watching from shore and on bridges on the Red River from the Provencher Bridge to the Louise Bridge for signs of one of the missing men. The police helicopter circled from above numerous times.
Barb Lobo and some other people frantically followed the missing man from the time he lost his grip on the driftwood piled up against the lighthouse offshore at The Forks on the Assiniboine River to the time she saw his head go under for the final time near the Provencher Bridge on the Red River around 8:30 p.m.
“If we had found a life preserver we would have got him,” Lobo said on Saturday night while an ambulance pulled away with the other man.
“We tried finding sticks or anything we could find to throw to him, but we couldn’t find anything. He was only 10 feet offshore, but there was nothing.
“We were telling him to hang on and then he went under and never came up again.”
Lobo said normally there are life rings along the river, but with the flooding — and the walkway being under water — there were no noticeable ones along the shore or along the large green pedestrian bridge there.
Lobo’s husband, Lawrence, said they first saw the two men holding on to an overturned fishing boat as the strong current pulled them down the river.
“They were together and both made it to there (the driftwood around the lighthouse),” he said.
“One got on the sticks while the other was there, but put his hand out for the boat. I think he tried to get his boat. The other guy said let it go.
“And then he was gone.”
Another person, who didn’t want to be named, said emergency crews on a boat had to fight the strong currents on the river to successfully rescue the man offshore.
The person said the man appeared fine because he was able to walk from shore to a waiting ambulance.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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