Page 9 - Ed Flickimer News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> you're basically hovering three or four feet off the ground, trying to stay in one spot, trying to hold on, trying not to knock him out and get this thing around his head, where eventually he's going to have to let go with both hands to get it up underneath his armpits and around him. >> this is the most dangerous moment of the whole rescue. if mccabe loses his footing now, it could be fatal. >> he would have been swept down river. whether he survived or not, i don't know. >> but nelson's timing is perfect. >> i was able to get this drop around him and gave the signal. that's when we came u...

The group launches their boats. within moments, everything goes wrong. >> we saw that tree coming right in front of us and then we hit it head-on. there was nothing that could be done to stay in that boat. >> i was in the current and things happened so fast, that i don't remember exactly the sequence of things. but i grabbed on to that tree. >> grateful to be alive, mike clambers into the tree and considers his options. >> the current was so strong that i couldn't even move a couple of yards upstream. it was very dangerous and i just stayed where i was. >> further down the river, ed has found ...

>> one of the guides of their expedition has also climbed out on to the log with ed. they are shocked at how cold that water is. >> i realized that i could risk suffering hypothermia if i got either of my legs in the water too long. >> fortunately, their plight has been noticed. >> i saw people gathering on the shore, they were looking and i'm sure that they had called the rescue team. >> two teams are called. the ground rescue volunteers and at the kearn county sheriff's office, the air support team of deputies mcadoo and nelson. >> we got our gear together that we needed to conduct the hoist...

>> people go in and swim or fall in and they get tired fighting the current, and they drown. >> the boulders that are just under water level, they're the size of a volkswagen. that's usually what people smash into. we've had over 250 actual drownings in the kearn river since they started keeping stats. >> the river's nickname is the killer kearn. >> on a warm june day in 2010, two friends, mike mccave and ed flickimer, decided to try rafting for the first time. with a group of friends, two rafts and two guides, they head for the river. when they get there, mike wonders if they have made a mist...

>> we saw that tree coming right in front of us and then we hit it head-on. there was nothing that could be done to stay in that boat. >> i was in the current and things happened so fast, that i don't remember exactly the sequence of things. but i grabbed on to that tree. >> grateful to be alive, mike clambers into the tree and considers his options. >> the current was so strong that i couldn't even move a couple of yards upstream. it was very dangerous and i just stayed where i was. >> further down the river, ed has found something to hang on to. >> i grabbed on to that tree and pulled myself...