For those who helped, trauma lingers
Water taxi passenger recalls scene: debris on water, ashen survivors
Social worker Suzanne Jones was on a water taxi headed back from Ahousaht when she was swept up in the marine disaster near Tofino.
Her boat diverted to help pick up survivors and as it approached the capsized Leviathan II whale-watching boat in swelling seas, Jones realized the magnitude of the tragedy and the risk to her own life.
“I thought if we lose our life here, we have children at home we will never see again,” Jones said. “We were being thrown around.”
In the sinking, 21 survived and five passengers, age 18 to 76, perished. An Australian man is missing.
As quickly as Jones was thrown into the nightmare, it was over.
Jones, a private contractor in child and family services, and a colleague arrived back at the Front Street dock in Tofino.
Emergency responders unloaded the survivors while Jones and her colleague slipped away through the chaos.
“We just got off the water taxi and drove home [to Nanaimo],” Jones said.
The experience was lifealtering and traumatizing — the fear in the eyes of survivors, the confusion expressed by those looking for loved ones, and the scene of dead bodies in the water.
After sleepless nights, Jones said she called Tofino RCMP’s non-emergency services Tuesday to ask how to obtain crisis counselling.
She was told that each service — fire department, ambulance, police, coast guard and other services — and First Nations conduct their own counselling.
“I was told that I was a civilian and it was up to me to access services on my own,” Jones said. “I was on my own.”
She spoke to the Times Colonist Wednesday to ensure that anyone else directly involved in the capsizing is provided help.
“There might have been others who walked away.”
Jones was returning from Ahousaht aboard the White Star water taxi captained by Peter Frank when muffled reports over a static-filled marine radio talked of bodies in the water.
Jones and her colleague agreed with Frank that there was no question but to render assistance. Frank raced to the scene.
Neither Jones nor her colleague wore life-jackets.
Jones expected to see a fisherman or two overboard. They initially heard three people were in the water.
“We were clueless,” Jones said. “I had no understanding or appreciation for what we were going into.”
The scene they encountered quickly pierced the bubble of safety they thought they inhabited.
Jones saw the hull of the capsized Leviathan II and the orange of a lifeboat.
If the seas could sink the large whale-watching boat, reasoning suggested it could also sink their small boat, Jones thought. The pair then realized that there was no cellphone reception.
As they got closer, Jones saw the debris field of lifejackets and personal belongings and finally the shivering and ashen-faced survivors in a power boat and on the rocks.
“I wouldn’t look around because I knew there were [at least] two deceased in the water,” she said.
Jones focused with others on the safe transfer of survivors from one boat onto the water taxi. Frank was trying to position his boat so as not to slam against the others or hit the rocks.
The stunned silence of the survivors was as haunting as if there had been cries, Jones said. One was pregnant, another had a broken leg. One man was unwell and pale.
“Everybody was very quiet,” Jones said. “A crew member talked about a rogue wave hitting them and how lucky it was that the water’s temperature wasn’t as extreme as it could have been.”
“Everyone was in a lot of shock,” Jones said. “A man from Texas said ‘my wife is not a good swimmer and I don’t know where she is.’ ”
Jones said she always tells her kids, who are seven and 11, how much she loves them but it had more meaning Sunday night.
She said Nuu-chah-nulth child and family services has offered her counselling services. She plans to attend today.
The province said Wednesday it has dispatched volunteers to Tofino and several agencies are providing assistance.
Those who cannot access services through their employer can contact the Provincial Health Services Authority’s Disaster Psychosocial Volunteer Network, whose motto is “no one who sees a disaster is untouched by it.” The network can be called at 250-266-0646.