Summary
Overview
A wildcard episode featuring three unexpected and harrowing stories from listeners. John recounts capsizing in a canoe and going over a 20-foot waterfall before being airlifted to safety. Evie shares her experience being struck by lightning while working at a summer camp in northern Ontario. Erin and Lauren describe being assaulted by an aggressive stranger who followed them home from a karaoke bar, resulting in severe injuries.
Going Over the Falls: A Canada Day Canoe Disaster
John from Coldwater, Ontario shares his terrifying 2017 Canada Day experience when he and his wife Fiona capsized their canoe on a river with unusually high water levels. The rope from the canoe wrapped around John's neck just before he went backwards over a 20-foot waterfall. He miraculously survived the fall over granite rocks, but became separated from Fiona in the rapids below. Their friend Frank had to swim across the river to rescue Fiona while they waited for emergency services.
- The water was unusually high - they paddled through areas that normally required portaging twice
- Just before going over the falls, the canoe rope wrapped around John's neck, but Savannah warned him in time
- John went over the 20-foot waterfall backwards and underwater, experiencing a strange sense of calm
- Three fire personnel arrived by boat, an air ambulance circled above, and search and rescue deployed two SARS techs who rappelled down from a helicopter
- The helicopter's downdraft was so powerful it knocked down three trees
" I'm thinking, well, if I get caught, I'm done for. But I thought I could almost live with that. It was a calming thing. "
" if you can read this, pull me back into the canoe. "
Search and Rescue: The Aftermath and Gratitude
After the rescue, John spent two weeks recovering at home. He contacted the search and rescue team to thank them and was invited to visit their base in Trenton. The captain arranged for the entire crew to meet John and Fiona, bringing out the actual helicopters used in the rescue. John emphasized how rare it is for rescue teams to hear from the people they save, and how most of their calls are recoveries rather than rescues.
- John's company phone survived in a ziplock bag and was tracked 10 miles downriver in the middle of a lake
- The SARS techs cover territory from the east side of the Rockies to Quebec, up to the Arctic Circle
- The base commander said nine times out of ten their calls are recoveries, not rescues
- The entire rescue operation, including two helicopters and emergency staff, didn't cost them anything due to Canadian healthcare
" What the base commander had said was they never hear from the people they do rescue, and there was no status of what happened or anything else. They were really happy to hear from us and actually see us. "
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