Arkansas River Has Rapids Like The Kern

The Kern River. Courtesy New York Times

As we, here in Kern County, plan and train to rescue people who may fall into the raging Kern River, a good samaritan in Colorado was in the right place at the right time to save a woman who fell from a raft into the Arkansas River’s violent water.

The Arkansas River has rapids as strong as the rushing water of the Kern so falling in is no joke. As the Kern County Fire Department tells people here, If you go into the river for recreation, go with a professional rafting company. That’s exactly what the Colorado woman did.

She was rafting with “Performance Tours” and the raft hit a wall of rough water, throwing the woman overboard. Chris Dean was on the rafting trip with the unfortunate woman, and was the first to respond and go into the water after after her.

While the tour guide continued to control the raft, Deansprang into action as a rescuer.

Coming out of the Rocky Mountains, the Arkansas river water is even colder than the Kern river water

-Tony Lee