Frantic river search for boy swept from mother’s arms
Rescuers comb Grand River after current pulls 3-year-old into floodwaters near Orangeville
Rescue workers are bracing for tragedy as adesperate search continues for a toddler who slipped from his mother’s grasp after their van was swept into the raging Grand River near Orangeville early Wednesday.
Michelle Hanson was driving with her 3-year-old son, Kaden Young, when she accidentally missed a road-closure sign and her vehicle was swept off the washedout road and pulled into “deep water.”
Cradling young Kaden, Hanson managed to get out of the van, but “the child slipped from her arms and ended up in the river,” OPP Const. Paul Nancekivell told reporters at the scene. “The van was swept away moments later.”
Frances Young, Kaden’s paternal grandmother, said Hanson hadn’t seen the road-closure sign due to dark and foggy conditions. It was about 1 a.m. when the vehicle hit the water.
“Both parents are absolutely devastated,” Young said. “He is — I can’t bring myself to say it any other way — a really bubbly child with a great sense of humour for 3-and-a-half years old. He could entertain me for hours.”
Police combed the area for the boy using helicopters, dive teams and ground search crews, Nancekivell said.
Rescuers were forced to end the search for the day on Wednesday at around 6 p.m. as the skies became too dark for the helicopter to navigate, Nancekivell told the Star.
They had covered so much ground that they had gone out of the county and hit Belwood Lake, in total travelling 10 to 14 kilometres along the winding river. Nancekivell said they would resume as early as 7 a.m. today.
Conditions along the waterway have been hazardous since Friday when a flood watch was issued by the Grand River Conservation Authority in anticipation of as much as 40 to 60 millimetres of rain by Tuesday. Days of melt runoff caused by unseasonably warm weather and heavy rain caused flooding to push water as much as a foot over the road.
Grand Valley Fire Chief Kevin McNeilly said firefighters initially responded to a call about a motor vehicle collision just before 1 a.m. Wednesday. While en route, they were notified a vehicle had gone into the river.
“Somebody along the river here had seen headlights kind of aiming up and floating down with the river,” he said. “When we got here, there was nothing to be found. We started working our way down river.”
Arescue vehicle was sent to Dufferin County Rd. 109 and its bridge over the waterway.
“When they got out of their vehicle, (rescuers) could hear a woman calling for help,” the chief said.
Hanson was found at a watery alcove on the river’s bank. She was hypothermic, McNeilly said, and was rushed to a waiting ambulance.
“She wasn’t in the main part of the river,” McNeilly said. “The river had swollen so badly, she was kind of where a bank would be. But it was still probably waist-deep water.” Dufferin County paramedics brought her to Headwaters Health Care Centre where she was treated and eventually released.
McNeilly said Centre Wellington Fire Department personnel were brought in and eventually found the minivan upstream .
Given the thick fog and swollen river with fast-moving ice, the risk level dictated the vehicle could only be secured at that point, he said. There was no sign of Kaden. “When that river swells like this, it gets awfully angry,” said one resident who watched the turbulent water from the Station St. bridge. “That’s a cold swill down there.”
A police helicopter had joined the search late Wednesday afternoon, with a thermal imaging camera, and Nancekivell said Dufferin Caledon Crime unit members were canvassing the neighbourhood.
Nancekivell said he regularly fishes the stretch of the Grand they were searching. Normally, he said, the water is about three or four feet deep and easily manageable wearing hipwaders. On Wednesday, the water was about three to four metres deep.
“It was a very violent river here last night,” McNeilly said. “At one point it raised up three feet in a matter of 20 minutes. That was quite noticeable. When the search teams went back in just to recheck some areas, originally it was waist-deep but then they were up to their shoulders.”
Nancekivell said Wednesday night that finding Kaden safe would be a “miracle” at this point. But he said they will evaluate the situation and continue searching.