Flooded Creek Proves To Be Too Much For Teens' Float Trip

The high water caused high anxiety in one part of the area. A group of teenagers' float trip down a rain swollen creek didn't turn out as they planned. It happened along Bird Creek, north of Skiatook

Tuesday, May 8th 2007, 9:38 pm

By: News On 6

The high water caused high anxiety in one part of the area. A group of teenagers' float trip down a rain swollen creek didn't turn out as they planned. It happened along Bird Creek, north of Skiatook Tuesday afternoon. Skiatook emergency workers say six teenagers intended to float down Bird Creek from Avant to Skiatook. News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports their adventure quickly turned into a scary situation.

"It was brutal. I was swimming straight toward the bank, and it carried me a long ways down before I actually got to the bank. It was moving," said Avant resident Derek Enloe.

The teens loaded into two aluminum john boats, but the water was too much, capsizing the boats.

"They said everybody was located except for this one kid," said fire department medic Terry Newman.

The teens couldn't find their 18-year-old friend, so they called for help.

"They thought the boat took him underwater,â€ said fire department medic Denton Eller. â€œThey didn't know if something hit him, knocked him unconscious or what."

"I was kind of concerned that some of the underbrush or something grabbed him and he couldn't come up or something," said Enloe.

Crews searched up and down the creek. While the search was underway, emergency crews feared the worst. Because of the swift water, dangerous undercurrents and all the debris, emergency crews thought they would be recovering a body. Within about a half hour, the missing teenager emerged from the woods, without any injuries.

"He was wet, muddy and scared to death," said Newman.

Skiatook's fire chief Don Butler hopes the teenagers all learned a valuable lesson about how dangerous rain swollen rivers can be and how lucky they are the situation didn't turn out worse.

"They can't play in this river or Bird Creek,â€ said Butler. â€œIt's still half banked full of flood waters. It's dangerous."

Despite the poor choice of floating on Bird Creek, firefighters say at least the teenagers made one smart choice. They were wearing life jackets, but they're quick to point out even with a life jacket, it's too dangerous to float on area rivers experiencing flooding.

Watch the video: Boat Full Of Teens Capsizes On Bird Creek