Family rescued from Black Rock
MONT CLARE >> Emergency rescue crews were called to the Schuylkill River Thursday when a boat carrying a family of four got stuck beneath Black Rock Dam.
The father, mother and two young children were in amotor boat that floundered in the roiling waters at the foot of the dam.
Emergency crews were called to the scene at 5:35 p.m.
“The water was definitely up and theymust have come over (the dam) a little hard and lost it,” said Jim Daywalt, chief of the Black Rock Volunteer Fire Company.
“Theywere lucky the boat stayed upright and they stayed in it,” he said.
In addition to the Black Rock crew, the Phoenixville and Collegeville fire companies were called out, as well as Friendship Fire Company’s Dive and Water Rescue unit out of Phoenixville.
The boat crew accessed the river from the Montgomery County side along the tow path to Lock 60.
“Boat 399 put in off the tow path and motored right up to them, threw them a line and hooked them. Then they pulled them right out and towed them over to the board dock,” Daywalt said. “The gentleman was very happy to be on land.”
By 6:15 p.m. the family was safe.
“It was a good rescue, we got themout quickly and everyone walked away,” Daywalt said.
The family was transported by Trappe Ambulance for a medical examination, although Daywalt was not sure where they were taken.
The names of the family members were not immediately available.
When Daywalt says the family was lucky, he’s right.
With more than 3,000 lowhead dams like Black Rock, many of them originally built to power mills, Pennsylvania had more than 70 dam fatalities by 2015.
That means the state suffered the highest number of dam drownings in the United States, according to data compiled by Brigham Young University.
The velocity of water over the dam’s crest creates a hydraulic jump or undertow that can pull a person under — and Olympic-caliber swimmers would struggle to escape.
Even wearing a life-vest provides limited protection because air bubbles created by the boil reduces buoyancy.
Pennsylvania also has been a national leader in dam removal — spending about $4.5 million on dam removal since 2011. More than 230 dams have been removed in Pennsylvania since 1995
Daywalt said this is the first water rescue his company has been out on this week, even though the Schuylkill has been running high in the last few days, swollen by recent rains.
On Sunday, three people were rescued from the Schuylkill River near Douglassville after their canoe capsized.
Hikers crossing the Thun Trail Bridge called in the incident, reporting the three were in the water beneath the bridge between Union and Amity townships hanging on to a tree, according to an Associated Press report.
It took more than an hour for rescuers to reach them.
“The water is up. People need to be safe out on the river,” Daywalt said.