KERNVILLE, Calif. (KERO) — The search continues tonight for the body of a man who died yesterday in the Kern River.
Roughly 40 workers from both Kern County and Tulare County Search and Rescue Teams gathered at the Ant Canyon Campground north of Kernville to retrieve the body of the kayaker who died in the Kern River on Wednesday, June 14.
According to Sergeant Joe Saldana with KCSO Search and Rescue, one of the challenges facing the team is the water they're searching is currently a Class 5 rapids.
"The water is running through here swiftly. The CFS is pretty high and there are a lot of obstacles, technical obstacles, that come into the situation when we are trying to run the subject," said Saldana.
KCSO is assisting the Tulare Sheriff's Office with the rescue with swift water specialists on site. The location of the kayaker's body is known and officials have a line of sight on it. However, the victim is still with the kayak, pinned to brush under the surface.
Media Supervisor Ashley Ritchie with TCSO says the safety of the rescue team is a top priority.
"It's life or death. With a tragic incident like this you see when 5 very experienced individuals, when something like this happens, it is an incredible risk for anybody to be on the water," said Ritchie.
The 5 experienced kayakers were traveling down the river when one of them got stuck in a dangerous situation. The 4 other kayakers who were with him attempted a rescue.
"Four kayakers were trying to rescue the fifth for about an hour, but the flows were too big so they couldn't get him out," said Ritchie.
Search and Rescue says they are still formulating a plan to retrieve the fifth kayaker's body. One method discussed would involve using a helicopter, but given the pressure of the river, it would be too difficult for a single person to extract the body.
Another option would be to send a crew on a raft that is attached to a rope running across the river.
"So basically we are watching the weather. There is just not a lot we can… We have to wait for a cooling trend. Once that cooling trend appears, which it looks like it will be about Tuesday or Wednesday, and we can go in and get him," said Ritchie.
Ethan Moore, a local professional kayaker, spoke off-off camera about some of the kayakers involved, and that they believed the accident wasn't caused by the higher flows of the river, but was rather what he described as the result of a freak accident.
Executive Director of the Kern River Conservancy Gary Ananian, who went up to the area to learn more about the rescue efforts, says he hasn't seen anything like this.
"I've been here 10 years and I've never seen anybody on the kayaker level drown on this river," said Ananian.
SAR plans on being near the site of the accident until they are able to retrieve the body and will be giving updates as needed.
