Girl lucky to be alive after being pulled into dam's undertow; rescued by 18-year-old boy

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Watching the strong current of water violently spill through the Nova Scotia Power dam in Tusket Falls, it’s remarkable that a 16-year-old girl was able to hang on long enough to be rescued and just as remarkable that an 18-year-old was able to pull her to safety.

But that’s the dynamic scene that played itself out Monday night after a teenaged girl got sucked into the strong undertow and came dangerously close to falling into the concrete spill box where officials speculate she could have drowned in the swirling rush of water.

Stopping this from happening was 18-year-old Jake Falls, a Yarmouth high school student, who had just arrived on the scene with his grandmother when friends of the girls came running over, frantically looking for help. Rescuing the girl was no small feat since the area around the dam is surrounded by fencing and two locked gates that a person would have to climb over to gain access.

With the rush of water threatening to pull the girl from the concrete post she was hanging onto, Falls laid down on the concrete surface of the dam and managed to pull her to safety.

“He had to reach not just over the edge, but a little bit under the dam to pull her out,” says Yarmouth rural RCMP Constable Francois Levesque. “She’s not a big girl but anybody with the force of water and being wet would not be easy to pull up. He also had to work pretty hard to get around some of those gates to get onto the dam.”

The girl was checked over by paramedics at the scene and was determined to be fine, albeit quite shaken up.

The 911 call came in around 6:20 p.m. on Monday evening, June 9, on a day that had seen unseasonably hot temperatures for this time of the year. George Emin, the deputy fire chief of the Lake Vaughan Volunteer Fire Department, says the call came in as “a girl trapped in the dam.”

“My first thought as it was paged to us as a kid caught in the dam, I thought she was trapped up against it and was going to be drowning. I didn’t realize she had actually gone through the spillway. When I got there and actually saw where she was my thought was, ‘Oh my God, am I going to get to her in time?’” says Emin. “When I got there she was holding onto a post in the centre of a spillway, hanging over the edge of the water and ready to drop into the falls. It had to be at least five minutes that she was hanging on.”

Emin and another firefighter, Wayne Cobbett, both went into the water to get to the dam. Cobbett was climbing onto the dam and Emin was climbing over a fence when he saw Falls hoist the girl onto the dam.

“He was laying over the side and had his arms down and grabbed a hold of her,” says Emin.

This incident could have had a more tragic outcome. And it’s because of this that officials are warning people about the dangers of swimming in the vicinity of dam. While there is a safe place to swim nearby at a 'beach' area, swimming near the dam is very dangerous.

Aside from the security fencing, gates and signs, Nova Scotia Power has installed pontoons on the lake in front of the dam to keep swimmers and boaters out of the area. Still, Emin says, young people will often jump into the water from a concrete platform and swim back and forth in the area inside the pontoons.

The water looks tame enough, but looks can be very deceiving. There is a very strong undertow, which is why there is signage in the area warning people not to swim, boat or fish on or near the dam.

“When there’s a lot of water there’s quite a current going down through the spill box, that’s when it’s really dangerous,” says Emin, who says while Nova Scotia Power has taken numerous steps to warn people of the dangers and make it extremely difficult to access the dam, they may have to consider putting a grate or screen across the spillway.

Meanwhile the RCMP and the fire department are urging people to heed the danger warnings.

“I don’t think Nova Scotia Power can improve a whole lot,” says Const. Levesque. “At some point people have to be accountable for their actions and act responsibly too. You can only put up so many gates and signs.”

Says Emin, “There’s probably at least 30 to 40 kids a day all summer long that swim there. They’ve got to be aware of how dangerous it is. I hope this wakes people up.”

Nova Scotia Power is also warning people about the danger associated with the hydro dam system.

“It’s something that we’re very concerned about and it’s why we take precautions and have security in place to keep people out of the system…the consequences can be deadly,” says spokesperson Margaret Murphy, who says fortunately in this case the person was able to get out of the system but Nova Scotia Power hopes this averted tragedy will serve as a reminder as to why people should not use the hydro system for recreation.

“No matter what we do at the sites, they are inherently dangerous, so people just need to stay out of them. That’s the big message that needs to get out,” Murphy says.

Nova Scotia Power is asking that people heed the cautions, heed the barriers and heed the signs and if they are swimming with other people, to be that voice of caution and to tell others not to go into areas that are clearly indicated to be dangerous.

“When the signs say that there is danger, they mean it,” says Murphy. “The consequences can be deadly and people need to understand that those structures are dangerous.”

Meanwhile Nova Scotia Power is looking at other things it might do in an attempt to further make the area safe. It says it may look at closing down a nearby swimming area and may install grates or screens on the spillway.

But all the measures it takes won't count for much if the public continues to ignore the danger warnings.