After man dies in Brandywine, officials say rising water spells danger
Adam DuvernayRegardless of how experienced the 54-year-old kayaker was who drowned in the Brandywine in Wilmington on Tuesday, he was facing rapids made more hazardous by heavy rain.
The Brandywine was running high, and it was running fast.
The last drops of Florence were falling over Wilmington throughout the day Tuesday with a warning of flash flooding from the National Weather Service.
"You really have to be careful with any river if it's flooding," said Tim Carrick, who works for Wilderness Canoe Trips Inc. north of Wilmington. "You'll see dramatic changes."
Correction: An earlier version of this article should have said swimming in the Brandywine is discouraged, but allowed. Fishing is allowed with a license.
The kayaker, who Wilmington police haven't yet identified, capsized in swift water near the North Market Street Bridge. He was pulled out downstream by the Fire Department after two passersby failed to rescue him.
Those rescue attempts, a fire spokesman said, were risks. By going into the river themselves, he said they put themselves in the same kind of danger.
The kayaker lost control when he hit a rocky stretch of the river. He was found on the river bank around the East 16th Street Bridge, the spokesman said.
The creek, bounded by popular parks and trails, winds through Wilmington toward the Christiana River. Though swimming in the river is discouraged, that doesn't stop city residents from summertime fun on the water.
And canoes and kayaks aren't unfamiliar on the city stretch of the Brandywine, but the journey gets rocky near the Washington Street Bridge, and the current picks up, especially after a rain.
Philadelphia's Buck Ridge Ski Club hasn't run whitewater slalom kayak races through Wilmington's piece of the Brandywine since the 1970s, but former president Mike Fernandez said he remembers the river as challenging and, potentially, dangerous
"It's not an easy set of rapids coming through the city. There's old dams; there's large rocks. And unless you know what you're doing, it could be deadly, and particularly in floodwaters," Fernandez said. "It's a treacherous river anywhere in flood."
The Brandywine around Wilmington was running above 14 feet Tuesday afternoon following a steady climb from about 12.5 feet Monday night, according to a National Weather Service river gauge. It had fallen again to about 12.7 feet Wednesday morning, the river gauge read.
Carrick spends his time on the Brandywine farther upstream than where Tuesday's kayaking death happened, but he's a veteran on that river and knows its habits.
"It's my backyard. It's a pretty forgiving river. It's not real deep. It's not real fast," Carrick said. "The Brandywine can get pretty shallow, as well as getting flooded."
It's unclear how familiar Tuesday's kayaker was with the Brandywine, and it isn't known how aware he was of the conditions into which he launched his boat. Some paddlers pray for rain, Carrick said, because higher rivers mean faster currents and challenging rapids.
"There are people who are experienced and have gone through classes to read the dynamics of a river and have the right equipment. They look for flooded days," Carrick said. "For a rookie, floodwater is dangerous. We stop going. We're a rental business."
A flooded river flows faster, Carrick said, and hides or shifts obstacles like submerged trees. Rocky parts make whitewater, and rivers that might accommodate a certain kind of boat on a slow day will put different pressures on the same boat when running high.
Tuesday's kayaker flipped in the swift-moving river and was pulled out of his boat, according to emergency officials who said they later recovered the kayak downstream.
"I've come down in a flood condition accidentally, and it's all fast and fun if you stay in the middle, but you realize real quick as a paddler the possibilities," Carrick said.
ON THE RIVER