The down side of summer weather in the Pac Northwest

[R-Dub]

Every year here in my area of WA State when the temps get above 80 degrees for the first time of the spring, people unfamilar with the water get into trouble, and there are always several drownings, this one today is very sad, two children from the same family drowned in a local western WA lake

Here is the story...................

2 Young Girls Drown In Silver Lake

May 28, 2005

By KOMO Staff

EVERETT - Rescuers pulled the bodies of two young girls from Silver Lake Saturday afternoon.

The girls, who were cousins, were swimming together at a crowded beach with dozens of people in the water.

At one point the 10-year-old slipped underwater. A few minutes later her 13-year-old cousin also disappeared.

A windsurfer who was in the area dove under water and found the older girl's body.

"I thought it might have been another diver," said Joe Cannata. "I just saw a body hunched over. I grabbed her leg and it obvious it was a victim. I just grabbed her and brought her to the surface and started screaming for help."

"We got her to shore and they got her in the ambulance quick," Cannata added. "It's a funny feeling you get, I don't know what more we could have done (to save her)." He was very sad he wasn't able to save the girl.

Search and rescue divers also recovered the young girl's body.

The entire beach was shut down as a precaution so search and rescue divers could look for more possible victims. They carefully scoured the bottom of the lake to make sure no one else had drowned.

The girls were rushed to the hospital and paramedics tried to revive them, but they were both pronounced dead at the hospital.

There are no lifeguards on duty at Silver Lake until the end of June.

[vbhoutex]

1st lesson to learn from this is that there must be total adult supervision of the swimmers in situations like this. The other is not to swim where there are no lifeguards on duty. There are some situations the best swimmer in the world will not be able to overcome. I've come close enought to drowning myself and I was a lifeguard so I speak from experience.

This is indeed a very sad and tragic situation.

[R-Dub]

The long weekend isn't even over yet, and the death toll from drownings this weekend in Western WA is 4 with one person still missing NOT GOOD!!!

[cswitwer]

I think the current total is 5 now. But there were another 2 or 3 last week also.

Is it because the water is too cold?? I'm totally baffled by it. I've never seen so many drownings in such a short time-- and I lived in rip current areas of the coast where you expect drownings every now and then.