A Washington state 911 dispatcher sent her mother rather than rescue workers to rescue a stranded boater in the Columbia River. The woman’s mother was sent because the dispatcher believed she could kayak to the area faster than a patrol boat.
Wahkiakum County dispatcher Raedyn Grasseth told the local sheriff’s office about the stranded kayaker but realized that her mother, Cindy Faubion, and other members of her family could get to the location in the river quicker than police boats, according to The Daily News Online of Longview, Wash.
Faubion and other family members got out to the stranded 45-year-old kayaker near the mouth of the Birnie Slough. “I knew they could be there within five to 10 minutes,” Grasseth said.
The rescued woman, who was not named, was cold but did not need medical assistance, reported NBC News.
Deputies said the woman got stranded after her kayak sank in a swift current near a jetty.
“Jetties are very dangerous. The currents around them are horrible. It sounds like her kayak just got sucked toward the jetty and went down,” Grasseth said, adding that the stranded woman “hung onto the jetty until she could climb up and get on to as much of the log piling as she could and waited.”
“She’s lucky she’s alive, plain and simple,” she said.
