Nueces County Record Star
May 15,
2017
By Mark
WilsonA husband and his pregnant wife who became lost and exhausted while on a tubing excursion late Sunday afternoon on the Brazos River were rescued by members of the Somervell County Fire Department — with a little help from technology — according to Fire Chief Mark Crawford.
Chief Crawford says their Neoteric hovercraft “is very
useful for our river rescues when the water moves from too shallow to deep. It
hovers 9 inches above the surface so swift water and hidden obstacles don’t
affect it. The advantage of the hovercraft is that it can hover in fast, rough
water and operate on land, shallow and deep water. We have around 50 miles of
river in our county.”
“Dispatch should be credited for pinging the
cell phone and sending us right to them,” Crawford said after the incident,
which occurred on the river north of the iron bridge that is on U.S. Highway
67.
Crawford
said the couple became exhausted “from
fighting the river current.”
The
SCFD’s hovercraft was sent, and was able to pick up the two, who were visiting
Somervell County.
“They were found approximately two miles off
course and were delivered to the waiting ambulance for evaluation,”
Crawford noted.
The
man told first responders that his wife had become “panicky,” but neither needed to be transported for medical
treatment, according to Crawford.
The
SCFD also had used its hovercraft to search for a man and his son who were
reportedly stranded on the river in a canoe or kayak, but they were able to
reach shore on their own.
The rescue
was just one part of a busy and successful Sunday for local first responders.
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